


Did You Know

by coppersky



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Gen, Snape's daughter, trying to be canonical
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-04-29 16:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5133851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coppersky/pseuds/coppersky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snape finds out Lily bore his child soon before dying in Godric's Hollow. Snape can't keep the little girl, knowing too much is at stake, so together with Dumbledore they organise to leave her in an orphanage until she is old enough to attend Hogwarts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> This was started about nine years ago as a fic intended for my own personal consumption, but as I've suddenly picked it up after all these years and added 40,000 words to it, I thought it might be worth posting. There are entirely too few Snape's daughter fanfics out there, and the few I've read don't really create or address his having a daughter in believable, in-character way. I will update periodically to drag out the uploading and pretend like I'm working on it as I go, but I can't guarantee the quality of these first few chapters as they were written when I was so much younger. I may edit as I go along. Enjoy!

“Did you know?” Dumbledore asked. There was a long silence before Snape replied,

“No.” Dumbledore nodded and sat down behind his great desk. “What will happen to it? The child, the-”

“A girl, Severus. A tiny girl.” The tears in Snape’s eyes renewed.

“I don’t want her growing up with Muggles. I won’t let it happen, I-” he stopped. Dumbledore looked at Snape and they both saw the problems they now faced. Harry would have to go to his aunt and uncle in Surrey, yes, but the girl was different. The Dursleys, for that was the name of Harry’s new family, had no idea the girl existed. One child was more than enough to leave with a bereaved family, let alone two.

“I’ll keep her.”

“Severus…”

“It’s the least I can do.” Snape pleaded, forcing Dumbledore to look away.

“I’m sorry, Severus,” he replied.

“NO!” Snape shouted, bounding up from his chair. “No, I won’t let it happen! Not an orphanage! That’s how this all began; He went to an orphanage!” Dumbledore stood and swept around the side of desk, standing in front of Snape. With gentle hands, he gripped the man’s shoulders and spoke quietly,

“Not to _that_ orphanage, Severus, you can be assured. The Ministry’s been keeping an eye on that and other establishments since Tom’s… rise to power. I’ve got a place in mind, and I’ll visit it personally before anything will be settled. Rest assured, Severus, she will be safe, _and happy_.” Snape sniffed and cast his eyes down to the floor, ashamed to be crying but unable to help himself. “If you would like to come and see Southhampton-”

“No, Albus, no-” Snape interrupted, stepping back from the headmaster and picking absently at his cuff, “I- I don’t want to see anything of that, but-” Dumbledore peered expectantly over his spectacles, “I _want_ to trust you with this.”

“And you cannot, after what has happ-”

“Of course not!” Snape bellowed, his face turning crimson, “If you had _protected_ them, this wouldn’t be an issue!” Snape threw himself into the wingback chair in front of the desk and leaned his head on his hand.

“Severus, _please_.” There was silence for a long moment while Dumbledore made his way back to his chair. He spoke softly as he looked down on Snape.

“There is nothing more that can be said, Severus. I cannot repeat these things forever.”

“I know,” Snape whispered, the two words coming out of his mouth, raspy as his voice caught. He looked up again, “Albus?”

“Severus?”

“Make sure she’s safe.”

“She?” Snape’s eyes widened, but he replied almost without hesitation.

“Lily. Safe _this time_.”


	2. Eleven Years Later

It was a terribly cold day, especially for late Summer, but that didn’t stop the majority of the children of Southhampton Orphanage from gallivanting around in the murky sunlight, throwing faded basketballs in every direction and yelling at the top of their lungs. At least it would be back to class in another few minutes, and then she wouldn’t have to put up with the irritating noises of her fellow children. Sitting there in the cool shade of a tree, on one of the only patches of grass –or rather dirt– that had managed to force its way through the fifty-year-old bitumen, Lily felt almost tranquil –almost. If only she had a book she hadn’t read four hundred times before, she might be completely serene. Instead, she simply sat, her back against the gnarled tree, staring unabashedly at the occasional pedestrian. Which is why, when one particularly long-bearded man walked halfway past where she was sitting and then stopped, she was surprised enough to utter a not-so-quiet squeak, to which the man responded with a light chuckle and a quizzical eye.

“Forgive me, but would you be Lily by any chance?” The girl jumped to her feet and came closer to the iron fence, wary not to come within arms’ reach.

“Yes, and you’re the man who brought me here, aren’t you?” she asked, following with her minds’ eye a little moth of a memory she had always thought to be her first: being taken through the front doors of the orphanage in the arms of a man with a long white beard and rocking as she was deftly passed from his warm arms into the cold arms of a nurse. She remembered his beard well, but also his light blue eyes as they peered down at her through half-moon glasses, benevolent but cold, as he watched her taken away from him.

“Who are you?” Lily asked in nothing more than a whisper, edging ever closer to the fence. An angry clicking of heels made her turn around just as the man began to reply,

“ _You remember?_ Ah, good afternoon,” he said, lifting his dated Trilby to the woman who came towards him at a brisk pace across the yard. Most of the yelling had subsided by now and the children were beginning to gather around the tree and wall of the building nearby.

“Can I _help_ you, sir?” the nurse asked in an accusing voice. This was not the first time strange men had walked past the orphanage and stopped to talk to foolish children.

“Yes, actually. I was coming to see about an adoption, if I might?” The nurse raised an eyebrow and a few of the older children snickered.

“Well, yes, this _is_ an orphanage,” she replied. The snickering children began to laugh outright until the nurse whipped her head to the side and gave them a warning glare, to which they immediately silenced.

“Then might I come in?” the stranger replied, replacing his hat carefully on his head.

“Of course,” the nurse replied, still cautious, and jerked her hand towards the locked main gates around the corner to which she began walking herself. “All of you children begin clean-up; classes will start shortly,” she added as an old rusted bell rang above the doors of the building. Lily cast a last glance over at the stranger before she went inside, and received a smile back from the man before his attention turned to the nurse walking briskly towards him.

 

 

It wasn’t until half-way through her arithmetic lesson that Lily saw the man again. Looking up from her untouched page, she saw the classroom door open and the head nurse and the man stride through. Without his hat on, Lily saw for the first time just how long his hair was, reaching down his back pastthe length of his already formidable beard. He smiled up at her again as the head nurse strode over to the teacher and spoke a few quiet words. She then looked up at Lily who, worried she had been caught not paying attention, turned back to her work.

“Miss. Lily,” she said, and Lily looked at her. Seeing the head nurse’s signal, she stood up and followed them out of the class and into her office down the hallway.

“After you,” the man said, standing by the door, and Lily walked in quickly, muttering a ‘thank you’ as she went. She sat down on the smaller of the two chairs that the nurse indicated and waited attentively. Her interest had been piqued. First this man from her memory appears out of nowhere, and then she is taken out of class in what all the orphanage children knew was an almost sure sign of adoption. Was this old man going to adopt her? No, it must just be something else, something less sensational, but what? The man sat down next to Lily, and the nurse began,

“Miss. Lily, this here is Mr. Dumbledore. He is looking to adopt and has chosen you.” Something in Lily’s stomach did a flip and she continued to listen to the nurse with rapt attention.

“A pleasure to meet you, Miss. Lily,” Mr. Dumbledore said, extending a wrinkled hand for her to shake and yet another creased smile, with which she lightly replied on both accounts.

“Now, of course, we’ll be checking up on you, Miss. Lily, and Mr. Dumbledore on a regular basis each week for a month, then the first week of every month thereafter for six months…” the nurse’s voice droned on but Lily ceased listening, instead finding great interest in the small letter tucked neatly under the forearm of Mr. Dumbledore, making a high whining sound to which both adults seemed oblivious.

“Is that all clear?” the nurse finished, her question aimed more at Lily than Mr. Dumbledore, who nodded and replied,

“I’m sure it is, and that you will be most comfortable at my home, Miss. Lily. I’ve had the place tidied up, so all we need now is to visit and assure Nurse Hazelthorp here that all is above board, and you should be settled in comfortably by the end of the week.”

“Do you have any questions, Miss. Lily?” Lily’s head was spinning. This man, who she was _sure_ had brought her to the orphanage when she was probably only a few weeks old, was coming _back_ to adopt her? Who was he? Was he really her father? ‘No, he’s too old,’ she thought. ‘But he did say “you remember” in such a funny tone before, like he was _surprised_ I would. And what’s that letter? Why is it humming? What about his home. Where does he live? Does he have a wife and family? Am I his grandchild?’ Lily thought, but all she could come up with to ask was,

“What’s your first name?” She cursed to herself inwardly, but the man just chuckled again and replied simply,

“Albus.” The nurse stood up.

“Well, if Miss. Lily is finished, I’ll ask you to return to class now. Mr. Dumbledore and I will arrange a time to visit his home and you shall be informed.” After which Lily was pushed back through the office door and left alone in the corridor, curious as all hell.

 

 

Early the next morning, Nurse Hazelthorp escorted Lily out to the waiting orphanage car and the two of them were driven down the driveway towards the gates.

“I thought he was up to something when I saw him, just standing there looking at you, Miss. Lily. I’d like to take this time to impress upon you once _again_ the seriousness by which we at Southampton Orphanage take the rule ‘No child shall converse through the fence with a passing person or persons’.” Stifling a yawn, Lily ‘yes, madam’ed her way through the nurse’s reprimand, the third she had received since the incident yesterday.

“Now, I think Miss. Lily’s heard that enough,” the nurse driving spoke up. “We’ll see soon enough just what Mr. Dumbledore is like, and I’ve seen his records; clean as a whistle. I’m sure you’ll be very happy with Mr. Dumbledore and his wife.”

“His wife?” Lily asked, taken completely off guard and allowing her voice to reach an alarming pitch. The head nurse smiled slightly and looked at her.

“Did you just expect us to send you off with an old man all alone? My my, we haven’t seen a set of prospective parents in a while now, have we?” the head nurse teased, and Lily looked away out the window, lost in yet another of the mounting thoughts in her head.

 

 

“Where exactly does Mr. Dumbledore live?” Lily asked, weary of their long journey. Although having boarded a train for the first time in her life to reach the midlands, the trip was beginning to tire her, though she still kept her eyes glued to the outside where the trees rushed by.

“13 Spinner’s End, Cokeworth,” the nurse replied, reading a slip of paper.

An announcement over the train’s speakers alerted the passengers that the train would be coming into Birmingham in another minute, and Lily shifted excitedly in her seat.

 

 

A knock on the door brought the beaming face of Mr. Dumbledore to Nurse Hazelthorp and Lily within a few seconds. With a friendly welcome and a, “sorry to keep you waiting,” which was certainly not needed, the two were ushered into a cosy little drawing room. Another woman had just come through from the kitchen carrying a tea tray laden with biscuits and a gaudy red and gold teapot. When she caught sight of Lily, she stopped in her tracks, seemingly dumbstruck for a second before her stern face broke into a smile that Lily would have thought her incapable of. She smiled weakly back at the woman as she moved forwards again, resting the tray on the table and coming to hold Lily’s hand in a firm grip.

“You’re just how Albus described you, my dear,” she said in a thick Scottish accent which immediately endeared the woman to Lily.

“My name’s Minerva, so please call me that and not _Mrs. Dumbledore_ ,” she said, casting an unfathomable look at Mr. Dumbledore, whose eyes twinkled back at the two. “ _Mrs._ makes me feel so old,” Minerva laughed and released Lily’s hand, moving over to greet Nurse Hazelthorp.

“Tea?” Mr. Dumbledore asked, receiving a nod from Lily and a polite ‘please’ from the nurse. They sat after a gesture from Minerva, Lily on the side of the sofa closest to the kitchen, with Mr. Dumbledore next to her, forcing the nurse to sit in one of the high back chairs opposite. As she sat she looked swamped in the ridiculously large chair that also swamped Minerva in hers as she sat down.

“Sugar, milk?” Mr. Dumbledore asked, pouring the tea.

“Black, please,” Lily replied shyly.

“A young girl taking her tea without milk and sugar; I’ve yet to see that before,” Minerva smiled, taking her teacup from Mr. Dumbledore.

 

 

“Shall we show you the house, my dear?” Minerva asked after a long time talking, seeing that Lily had grown increasingly tired of the adult conversation.

“Oh, yes, please,” Lily replied, her voice betraying the fact that she was beginning to become excited about the prospect of actually living with the Dumbledores. At first, she thought it was just a hoax; a cruel joke played on her, probably something to do with the fact that she remembered Mr. Dumbledore from such a long time ago, but perhaps she had been mistaken (‘ _even though he’d been surprised to know I remembered?_ ’). Now she had found through listening to their conversation that maybe this wasn’t going to be temporary, maybe this new home would really become hers in time, and soon too, by the way the conversation was going. They all stood as a group and Minerva began a running tour of the house.

“Well, this is the living room, obviously, and through here we have the kitchen and the washing room. If we come back through the living room, this door here goes to Mr. Dumbledore’s study, which is off limits, and then upstairs.” They climbed the stairs in due course and continued in the above rooms. “This first door on the left is the bathroom, which will be for your use, and this room just across here we have set aside for you.” Minerva turned the knob of the door and pushed the door open with a flourish. The room inside was larger than Lily could have hoped for, and it contained a large single bed, a desk and chair, a dresser and an old cupboard against the back wall. The window was surrounded by heavy curtains that framed a rather melancholy view of the neighbourhood which, from the first glimpses Lily had seen of it, was not all that welcoming or… rather _clean_ , really. As she was allowed to walk into the room and quickly look around, a familiar high whining noise came to her ears. With a start she noticed the envelope Mr. Dumbledore had held in his hands yesterday poking out from underneath the pillow on the bed.

“And of course, up here is _our_ bedroom, which again is off limits,” Minerva continued outside the room. Mr. Dumbledore now stood at the doorframe, apparently looking at the other two, but with a quick turn of his head, he looked at Lily and nodded. She took his nod as permission and snatched the letter from the pillow, tucking it into a hole in the lining of her worn jacket. Mr. Dumbledore winked at her and walked down the hall. Lily followed just in time to catch the next part of Minerva’s tour.

“Up the passage here is another room where we keep books and a television. Of course, we don’t use it much, but you will be welcome to it. Well, apart from the hall cupboard,” at this point Minerva gestured comically at the door in the hallway and gave it an exasperated expression, for what reason Lily couldn’t guess, and then turned back to them, “that’s it. Not _big_ , but a nice cosy sort of place.” Minerva almost couldn’t keep the smile back from her face as she recalled just how she had described Spinner’s End. ‘At least glamours will fade before Severus returns, although I’d _love_ to see his face at all the floral wallpaper…’ she thought to herself, and Dumbledore seemed to share a similar thought.

“Well, if that concludes everything…?” he asked, and a few more pleasantries were spoken as they bustled back downstairs.

“So, Lily, what do you think? Would you like to live with us?” Minerva smiled as the three adults looked up at her standing next to the sofa. It all came down to her word whether she would now. The envelope in her pocket gave a comforting yet surprising sense of weight in the side of her jacket and, fiddling with the corner of the envelope through the material, she said,

“Yes, please.”

“I’m sure Miss. Lily will find it very comfortable here, thank you Mr. Dumbledore, Minerva,” Nurse Hazelthorp said as they walked out the door. When they had arrived, Lily hadn’t really noticed the state of the neighbourhood, but now that she saw it without so many nerves, she found that it was cold and darker than what she had thought, even after seeing it through the bedroom window. ‘How could such a cheery little house exist in such a funny place?’ she thought. As they climbed into the waiting taxi, Lily felt the envelope inside her jacket give a little whimper, it seemed, and then cease to hum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Changed King's Cross to Birmingham 9/11/15.


	3. A New, Normal Life

It was long past midnight before Lily even dared to unzip her jacket. She had gone to supper in it, all the while holding it wrapped tightly around her body, and then climbed into bed with it when the time came. Lily lay awake for hours waiting for the other children to fall asleep, and only when she was sure the others were completely out did she move slowly and deliberately from the covers. Creeping down the rows of beds, she stepped carefully on the floorboards she knew were safe until she came to the bathroom door. Left ajar, she slipped through the gap gingerly, terrified of bumping the door, which always squealed horribly if you touched it. She got past, shivering a little as the cold wet tiles of the bathroom shocked her warm feet, and made her way to the far stall by the wall. She locked herself inside and climbed on top of the seat, then up onto the cistern. At that height, Lily was able to reach the little open ventilation window. No longer with any glass in the frame, it always let in light from the streetlamp outside. On her precarious perch, Lily unzipped her jacket and rooted around the inner lining for the letter. She finally fished it from the bottom of her jacket, where she had been fiddling with it all night, and brought it up to read in the window.

 

Miss. Lily

Southampton Orphanage

The last bed on the far wall

 

She turned it over to open it and found the wax seal had crumbled away, presumably somewhere in her jacket. All that was left was a red waxy residue holding the thick paper lightly shut. Lily cracked it open with her nail and pulled another, thicker piece of paper from within. Unfolding it, she read:

 

 

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

 

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

 

   Dear Miss. Lily,

   We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

   Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

 

   Yours sincerely,

**_MMcGonagall_ **

**Minerva McGonagall**

Deputy Headmistress

 

   UNIFORM

   First-year students will require:

       1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

       2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

       3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

       4. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)

   Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.

 

   COURSE BOOKS

   All students should have a copy of each of the following:

   The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)

       by Miranda Goshawk

   A History of Magic

       by Bathilda Bagshot

   Magical Theory

       by Adalbert Waffling

   A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration

       by Emeric Switch

   One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi

       by Phyllida Spore

   Magical Drafts and Potions

       by Arsenius Jigger

   Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

       by Newt Scamander

   The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection

       by Quentin Trimble

 

   OTHER EQUIPMENT

       1 wand

       1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

       1 set glass or crystal phials

       1 telescope

       1 set brass scales

   Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad.

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK

 

Lily scanned the enclosed list briefly, but turned back to the letter, entirely confused. She read it over and over again, wondering what on earth Mr. Dumbledore and Minerva were on about. She stared at the letterhead and the signature.

“Are you mad?” Lily heard the creak of a bed in the next room and started. Folding the letter up quickly, she stuffed it back inside her jacket lining and climbed down from the cistern. Pausing a moment, she waited until she was sure the noise was nothing, then crept back to her bed, hid under the covers, and wondered the whole night through.

 

 

“Well?” Snape asked, his eyebrows furrowing as Dumbledore glanced absently around the room, avoiding his question.

“You really should think about giving this place a dust at least, Severus. Why, I could swear that dust bunny has been here since we spoke last Summer-”

“ _Headmaster_.” Dumbledore held up his hands in mock-defeat.

“All right, she’s fine, Severus, _Wonderful_. She was a pleasure to meet. She looks so much like you. I suppose I could explain the whole story to you, but I think you’d rather _look_ , wouldn’t you?” he asked, following Snape with his eyes. “Where is your pensieve?” With a sharp wave of his wand, Snape opened the cupboard on the far wall and drew the pensieve out onto his empty desk. Dumbledore walked over, the tip of his wand extracting a fine silvery wisp from his temple as he went. He directed it over the swirling liquid mist of the pensieve and pushed it down with a swish of his wand. Instantly, scenes from the orphanage began to play in the bowl, and slowly Snape put his head into the memory and his mind followed.

 

 

When he came back, Snape’s body made an awkward jerk and he gasped as he straightened up. Having leaned over his desk stock-still for well over an hour hadn’t come without a few pains. At the small table in one corner of his room, Dumbledore sat playing with the wizard’s chess set that had long been neglected by Snape. The headmaster stood as Snape returned, coming forward from the shadows of the room as Snape looked around for him.

“Well?” Dumbledore asked softly, and was shocked to see, for the first time in his life, Severus Snape give a wide smile. Of course, for Snape it was a wide smile; for anyone else it would have been a grin at most, but as Snape’s eyes wrinkled in the corners and he bore his teeth in the least threatening manner he had seen yet, Dumbledore took it to be genuine happiness. He doubted Snape had done that for a long time.

“Thank you. For _everything_ ,” Snape said, his smile toning itself back down to an almost-scowl.

“My pleasure, Severus,” Dumbledore replied.

“When are you getting her over to Spinner’s End?”

“Things should be arranged with the Muggle orphanage by Friday. They’ll put her on the train on Saturday, if things are sorted. You know Muggles and their paperwork. I’ll send you an owl when she arrives. Perhaps you can take her to Diagon Alley early, get her sup-”

Snape’s eyes became dark and her scowled a little at the Headmaster’s words.

“I cannot. She has been essentially a secret, and she looks so much like me. It will raise enough questions as to who she is when she comes to Hogwarts; my guardianship of her would be unwise, particularly before the start of term.” Dumbledore nodded and twinkled back at Snape.

“Well, in that case, Severus, I suppose Minerva will have to take her to Diagon Alley. If you’re _sure_?” Dumbledore gave Snape a look and the other man managed to scowl a little harder.

“If what Potter said about facing the Dark Lord last semester was accurate, and not the worthless boy _crying wolf_ , then I think it would be more prudent just to wait. I will meet her once she has arrived at Hogwarts and settled into the magical world.”

“So be it,” Dumbledore agreed.

 

 

‘ _Finally,_ ’ Lily thought to herself, ‘it’s about time they took me in.’ The train was speeding towards Birmingham at a far greater speed than last time she had travelled to the Midlands. Nurse Hazelthorp had seen Lily off at the Southampton train station with her one small case of clothes and two or three personal possessions, assuring her that Mr. and Mrs. Dumbledore would be waiting at the platform when she arrived. Apparently both had been unable to pick her up personally from the orphanage, but that didn’t matter; it was really the first time she had ever been alone for more than an hour, and she liked the solitude of an empty compartment all to herself. Sitting there on the fringe of her new life, she felt uneasy. Of course she was thrilled beyond measure that she would _finally_ have a normal life with a loving family, but something about the Dumbledores and that weird letter had freaked her out a little. After thinking it over and over, she decided it must just be a little game. Whatever the reason for the gag letter, Lily would bring it up with her new parents in due course like logical, intelligent people. And if they _did_ turn out to be nutters, well… Lily supposed she could just run away again, get stuck in another orphanage at very worst. She’d see when she got there.

 

 

Had the train been a steam engine, the platform would have been filling theatrically with white steam clouds as the engine pulled into platform three. As Lily gathered up her suitcase, she heard a light knock on the window and turned around to see Mr. Dumbledore peering in with Minerva plastered to his side. Lily allowed herself to smile widely, her excitement finally growing, and her desire to learn the meaning of that strange letter was itching away as much as it had been the night she’d opened it.

“Lily! Welcome! Hello!” Mr. Dumbledore said, extending an arm, which Lily took and shook his hands before he pulled her gently into a warm hug, which she returned awkwardly. Minerva opened her own arms too and hugged the girl before she pulled away and Mr. Dumbledore picked up her suitcase.

“This is rather light; is this all you have?”

“That’s it, yes,” Lily replied.

“Well, we’ll have to get you some new clothes first thing. Shall we go shopping now?” Minerva asked, feeling the tattered hem of Lily’s old jumper.

“Oh, no, really, you don’t have to-”

“Don’t speak nonsense, dear, of course we must. We’re your parents after all, aren’t we?” Minerva winked, and Lily smiled, looking at both in turn.

“I suppose you are now,” she said.

  

 

Shopping itself was uneventful. Lily was dragged from store to store to try on new and expensive clothes. As much as she liked the thought of having something new and _individual_ to wear, draining her new parents’ pockets was not the way she wanted to go about it. In every store, she immediately took herself over to the sales racks, which didn’t necessarily bother her parents, but they still insisted on a ridiculous amount of new clothes, shoes and, embarrassingly enough, new underwear, although Lily was secretly thankful they had thought of such a thing without her needing to ask; she was certainly not in possession of a large supply of such at the time. After they’d shopped, Minerva insisted on dragging Lily to a hairdresser, and for the first time in her life, Lily had a neat, professional haircut. Her straight black hair, which had been somewhere near her ribs, was chopped back to chest height, and the hairdresser had given her some shape to the cut, getting rid of her half-formed fringe and cutting so the front layered up to her cheeks. With a wash and a blow dry, Lily looked a new girl, and she had a hard time stopping herself from staring in every reflection from the shopping centre to the taxi ride home.

 

 

When they returned home to Spinner’s End, Mr. Dumbledore took Lily’s suitcase and the shopping up into her room, and Minerva helped her put all the new clothes away while Mr. Dumbledore prepared tea.

“Thank you so much, again,” Lily said for the umpteenth time.

“It’s no worry, really, child. You were in need of these, _I’m sure_ ,” Minerva replied, folding a white blouse and tucking it away. Lily opened one of the end table drawers and then pulled her suitcase across the bed. Flicking the old clasps open, she rummaged through the meagre contents and pulled out the few things that weren’t tattered clothes. A few books, a hair brush, and notebook were stacked up neatly on the bedside table and in the drawer.

“Are those books you have there, dear?” Minerva asked.

“Yes, but I’ve read them so many times before, I’m not sure why I bothered bringing them,” Lily replied, running her finger over the front cover of one.

“But I love books. The other children at the orphanage sometimes swapped with me and we’d read each other’s books if we had any. I bought them with money I’d saved, so I suppose I didn’t really want to just leave them.” Minerva looked at the titles lined up neatly on the sidetable.

“The Invisible Man,” Minerva read out loud, “Lovecraftian Horrors, and The Fellowship of the Ring. Quite a variety. You don’t seem to have a favourite genre then?” She enquired, lifting up Lovecraftian Horrors to flick through. She grimaced at an illustration of The Shadow over Innsmouth.

“I was trying to broaden my horizons, read as many different styles as I could. I like stories that are as different as possible from real life; it makes them something you can get away in when you read them.”

“I would never have guessed you enjoyed reading so much,” Minerva replied, handing the book back and almost failing completely to stifle a bout of laughter. ‘ _Never would have guessed_! If she were any _more_ like Severus, I’d swear he’d just been de-aged! Oh, but maybe not; the _temper_ …’The kettle whistled downstairs and Minerva finished folding the last shirt into a neat square.

“Let’s go have some tea, shall we?” Lily nodded, closing the end table drawer and picking up her tattered jacket.

They made their way downstairs into the kitchen where a plate of sandwiches awaited them. Mr. Dumbledore brought the teapot over and set it down on a placemat just as the others sat down.

“Settled in?” he asked.

“All done, I should think,” replied Minerva, reaching over for a sandwich. Lily took a salad sandwich and began to nibble at it, listening to Mr. Dumbledore mumbling under his breath,

“One spoon and milk for Minerva, _none_ for Lily and three for me…” he finished, passing one teacup over to Minerva and pushing the other across to Lily.

“Thank you,” she replied, placing her sandwich down and taking a sip. For around five minutes, lunch passed in almost absolute silence, until Mr. Dumbledore excused himself when, much to Lily’s surprise, an owl flew up and perched itself on the open kitchen window ledge, cooing softly and holding a letter in its beak. Unabashedly, Mr. Dumbledore took the letter from the owl’s beak and scratched its head, then returned to the table to fetch a scrap of ham and fed it to the owl before it flew away, clearly pleased with its snack. Lily watched, deeply intrigued.

“Albus…” Minerva said, clearly hinting at the young girl in the chair next to her.

“Nothing to worry about, Minerva, just a note,” he said, waving the dark slip of paper and sitting back down on his chair. Lily looked on as Mr. Dumbledore read the short note. From the back, all she could make out, even with the sun shining through the thick paper, were a few dark splotches.

“What do you think, Minerva?” he asked once he had finished reading, passing the slip over to her, “shall we… allow this?” Minerva pulled out a pair of small silver glasses and read the note through twice.

“Well, he’s certainly changed his tune, hasn’t he?” she said, smiling at Mr. Dumbledore and then Lily, who promptly cast her eyes across the room feigning interest in something besides the letter that had drawn both adults’ attention so quickly. “But first…?” she said, returning her gaze to Mr. Dumbledore.

“Does this have to do with the other letter?” Lily asked suddenly, her cheeks reddening as she continued to stare at a spot on the far wall. Mr. Dumbledore peered down through his half-moon spectacles at the girl who turned an even darker shade of crimson under his gaze.

“It does,” he stated simply, and Lily looked up at him. She reached into her tattered jacket and extracted the letter.

“I’m glad to see you’ve had a chance to read it despite being in such a social place as you were,” Mr. Dumbledore said, his eyes still twinkling all-too brightly for Lily’s liking.

“Can I ask…?” Lily began, but trailed off, uncertain of where to go from there.

“By all means, child, ask as many questions as you like, and you shall receive an answer for every one,” Mr. Dumbledore said and folded his hands on the table, waiting expectantly. Lily’s eyes flicked back and forth from one adult to the other as she tried to put some sort of order to the hundreds of questions swirling around her head.

“Are you Minerva _McGonagall_?” Lily finally asked, fixing her eyes steadily on the cold grey of Minerva’s.

“I am,” she nodded.

“And you’re Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts?” Lily asked, turning to Mr. Dumbledore.

“Just as it says, yes,” he replied. Lily paused for a second, her mouth opening and closing struggling to find a way to phrase her next question.

“I don’t want to sound rude, but you do realise I don’t believe this? I mean, you can’t just give me a letter that says I’ve been invited to a magic school and expect me to believe it straight off the bat?”

“Of course not,” Dumbledore replied, sounding as if he were scandalised Lily needed even ask.

“I know this letter was making an odd humming noise, but I suppose you put something in it? Like a chemical compound which reacts and gives off noise from the reaction.”

“You’ve put a lot of effort into figuring this out, haven’t you? But have you thought maybe the letter is genuine?” Lily’s mouth snapped shut. No, she hadn’t. At all.

“If magic is real, then why haven’t scientists discovered it?”

“Because only those who are gifted in magic can discover magic. You are one of those people, Lily.”

“Then you and Minerva must be too. Prove it. Show me magic.” Dumbledore pushed his chair back and rose, pulling a long thin wand from his sleeve. Lily admired the intricate design of the wand, but wasn’t convinced yet. Dumbledore pointed his wand at his teacup, which he had drained before, and cast as spell.

“Aguamenti.” The teacup instantly filled to the brim with water, and Lily launched herself forward, grabbing the teacup roughly, spilling the water on the table and her hand.

“Water! That was amazing! I don’t know how you could have done that without magic; it was empty.” Dumbledore smiled, and Minerva stood up.

“Allow me to demonstrate also.” The old woman started to turn away from Lily, but before her very eyes, she suddenly shrank and disappeared. Jumping up, Lily threw herself around the table to find a perfectly groomed tabby cat sitting looking up at her.

“Minerva?” Lily asked incredulously. The cat meowed. “Well you’ve bloody-well convinced me!” Dumbledore laughed as Minerva transformed back into herself and Lily started to bubble over with questions.

“So can I turn into a cat? How do I get a wand? I wonder can you turn-” Dumbledore chuckled and calmed Lily down.

“Sit, Lily. Be calm and think clearly. We will tell you everything you need to know.”

 

 

A quiet whoosh of air and a green glow blew from the fireplace, scattering coals and embers as the flames curled around the hearth. A moment later, a dark figure materialised out of the fire. In another whoosh, the fire died and the figure made a grunt of annoyance, moving across the room to stomp on some stray embers.

“Severus?” a hushed voice called from the top of the stairs.

“Headmaster?” it replied.

“Ah, good,” the man replied, and swiftly its owner came down the stairs, waving his wand at the electric light, which flicked to life. As the room lit up, the black figure blinked, his pupils uncharacteristically wide, and set his eyes on the man clad in a mauve night gown above him. “I thought you would come.”

“I hope you have not been waiting for me,” Snape replied, his voice betraying his actual lack of concern.

“No, no, not at all. By luck, I happened to have woken only a few minutes ago to make myself some midnight cocoa,” Dumbledore said, and Snape noticed that the man did have traces of cocoa powder flecked throughout his white beard. “We’ve only been asleep for a few short hours, Minerva and I, you see; we’ve been speaking about _it_ to Lily,” Dumbledore said, smiling tiredly.

“She knows now?” Snape asked, glancing around the hideous floral living room.

“Yes, everything- _almost_ everything,” Dumbledore added quickly. “She should be asleep now at any rate. Would you like to see her?” he asked, noticing the way Snape rocked back and forth on his heel, clearly anxious to walk up the stairs despite the headmaster’s invitation.

“Yes,” Snape replied, and made his way silently up the stairs, clearly uninterested in waiting for a reply. “The first?” he mouthed walked past Dumbledore, reaching the first door on the landing. Dumbledore nodded and Snape turned, wrapping his pale fingers around the brass doorknob. With a quick turn, he opened it and slid into the room, closing the door behind him.

“Dear Severus,” Dumbledore said, shaking his head gently. “Finally,” he said, flicking the light off with his wand.

 

 

Snape opened the door, swept in, and closed it again without so much as a creaking of wood. After so many years in the house, he’d learnt the way to get around without making noise. It was close to a necessity, both here and at Hogwarts, and had become a habit with him; it wasn’t so much his choice. As the light from downstairs faded and his eyes became accustomed to the darkness of the room, Snape began to see the bundle in the small bed on the back wall. His heart stopped. Stretched out, already Snape could see this girl was tall for her age, like he was; and the way she slept, stretched out fully in the bed instead of curled into a ball, like he did… It reminded him all too quickly of how real the situation was. He hadn’t been able to bear it that night. After over a decade Snape had pretended to be alone, _truly_ alone in the world, without a real friend at all, and it had been almost too easy to believe. There were times, he knew, when it was true as well. In those moments, rare now but all too vivid when recalled, he could see himself sitting in the armchair in his rooms at Hogwarts, sitting and thinking, _thinking_ about how lonely he was, how everything had gone wrong for him from the start. His parents never loved him, he had few friends if any, and the one girl he had ever- could he even bear to say the word now? _loved_ had turned away from him and married- _that man_. He didn’t like to dwell, but he couldn’t help it; she was dead and he had done nothing to help her, _couldn’t have helped her_ , in that one hour of true need, and now he had nothing. It amazed Snape how he could ever have forgotten about this girl, sleeping soundly under warm blankets in his own house, the living and breathing child of his and Lily Evans. She wasn’t really dead, and she hadn’t just left some half-angel half-demon _thing_ behind to mock him; this child wasn’t Harry Potter, thischild wasn’t half of his love and half of his enemy mixed into one mocking, insolent excuse for a student. Student. He’d been a teacher _far_ too long. Snape moved to the side of the bed and crouched down, his head level with the mattress, and looked at what was visible of the girl’s face under her arm. In the night, he couldn’t be sure, but he saw her hair was dark, probably black, and her complexion was definitely pale. Moonlight shone intermittently on her cheek as the heavy curtain was blown by a cold wind, letting the light illuminate the bed. With a wave of his wand, Snape closed the window, making sure the draft wouldn’t make the room any colder. It had taken him a while to realise, but her room was much colder than it was in the hallway, and the girl’s neck had gooseflesh all across it. She wasn’t shivering, but Snape could see she was cold. With his wand, he cast a heating spell on the blankets, which instantly began to warm, and saw the girl’s gooseflesh disappear almost as quickly. Slowly, he raised his left hand and swept away a stray strand of hair from her face. At his touch, she stirred and turned to face the ceiling, her head free of the sheets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was the last of the _old_ story which I wrote almost a decade ago. I edited severely, but from the next chapter onwards, things are written this year - which obviously means plot points and other canon information unavailable years ago has been added and updated in these first few chapters.


	4. United

Snape stayed downstairs that night, sitting in his favourite chair (now a high-backed floral monstrosity), sipping some bitter black tea, and thinking about his daughter. Finally, after all these years, he had her. As much as he was terrified, he could hardly think of much else than the soon-to-come morning when Lily would climb out of bed and come down the stairs to see her father for the first time. Uncharacteristically, Snape felt himself choke up at the thought, but quashed it with a mouthful of scalding tea.

  

The sun was barely rising when Lily stirred and woke. A lifetime at the orphanage had conditioned her to rise before the sun; that way she was guaranteed at least an hour alone. During those times, she’d sneak to the roof of the orphanage and, summer or winter, sit on a short wall and watch the sun rise through the gritty buildings of Southampton, the early morning commuters honking and roaring in the distance. Again now, Lily wanted to go outside and watch the sun rise, but the new unfamiliar setting of Cokeworth seemed dangerous to her, and so she thought a walk around the neighbourhood in daylight first would be a better course of action. Lily glanced out the curtains of her room and reopened her window, noticing it had been closed in the night. Outside was dark and thick with trees to one side and bare houses across the street. No, she wouldn’t venture out there alone, at least not the first time. Instead, she gathered up her clothes and quietly crept across the hall to the bathroom to shower.

  

Downstairs, Snape jolted from his reverie when he heard the brass knob of Lily’s room grind open and little footfalls creak the old house’s floorboards. Water started running in the room above Snape’s head, and he rose to toss his cold tea down the sink. When he returned to the living room, Minerva was descending the last of the stairs in a tartan nightgown. Her hair was pinned into a loose bun, and she adjusted her glasses as she saw Snape.

“Severus,” Minerva said, turning the light on with a wave of her wand.

“Minerva,” Snape nodded.

“I didn’t think you’d have stayed. Albus told me you’d arrived a few hours ago. Have you slept?”

Snape shook his head and poured yet another cup of tea, accioing more cups and saucers as he asked, “How do you have yours?” Minerva reached down to pour her own tea.

“Are you sure about this? Before you said it was too dangerous-”

“I am aware,” Snape cut her off, to which Minerva wrinkled her nose haughtily. “But I…” he paused for a long moment, trying to fit the words together as he’d been trying all morning. “It’s been too long; I have so much to make up for,” he explained as he stared pointedly at the tea he sipped. Minerva nodded and placed the teapot down gently.

“I understand,” she spoke softly. “She’s your daughter, Severus. It’s up to you.” She smiled as Snape looked abashed. Hearing those words, that declaration of responsibility; for the first time in eleven years, it had really sunk in. “I came down because she woke up. I’ll go put something on for breakfast. Would you like anything?” Snape shook his head,

“No, I’ll wait.”

 

 

Lily dressed in her new skirt and a bright white shirt. She’d never owned a white anything until now, and the crispness of its colour was a stark contrast to the clothes she had always worn before. She grinned at herself in the mirror and flicked the bathroom light off, opening the door and noticing the lights downstairs had been lit, unlike when she’d woken up. Thinking one of her guardians must have woken early, she trotted downstairs lightly, but stopped dead when she saw a man in dark flowing robes lounged in one of the armchairs, staring at her with searching eyes. Slowly, he stood up, something more akin to shock crossing his face, as Minerva appeared from the kitchen and made a little noise in the back of her throat. Lily stood for a moment; unsure of who this new man was, dressed so strangely. The man didn’t say hello or even smile, though he was clearly acknowledging Lily’s presence. It took her a few seconds of silence and staring before she thought she saw something in his eyes. Lily glanced across at a long mirror by the door and then back at the silent, terrifying man in the lounge room. Looking back and forth a few times, something about him seemed familiar. God, he looked like… like her. Lily’s face must have shown some sort of recognition then, for the man cracked a funny sort of grin, and Lily cautiously asked,

“Do I know you?”

“Not yet,” he managed after a long moment of silence, when Lily noticed Minerva’s tears running down her cheeks, her hand pressed against a smiling mouth. Lily came forwards to look at the man closer, and surely enough, she saw the same eyes and mouth as her own, and the same tall, gaunt frame. It was preposterous. He couldn’t be. Don’t ask such silly questions-

“Are you my father?”

“Yes.” The man looked down at Lily as she stood right in front of him. Neither really knew what to do then, frozen with the knowledge of what Lily’s head screamed to her to be a lie. He’s not really your father, he’s just some sick guy- oh God, he looks like me, he scowls like me, those eyes- Neither Minerva nor Albus, now standing smiling at the landing, could really tell whose resolve gave in first, or whether Lily’s small arms had wrapped around Snape’s waist before or after he’d swept down and pressed the child to his chest. Albus snuck across the living room to stand by Minerva, whose tears were flowing freely as she couldn’t stop staring and smiling at the sight before her. Albus grinned brightly. From the kitchen archway, all they could now make out was a huddled ball of black cloak and mussed black hair, sniffing and shaking, with an occasional wet chuckle emanating from within.#

“I’ve missed you, Lily, so much,” Snape whispered to his daughter, who could do little more than weep in disbelief.

“I wish I’d known,” she managed to stammer after a while, trembling and sniffing.

 

 

When the two managed to calm down after a few nervous minutes, and Minerva directed them all to the dining room where a breakfast had been laid out. Lily still sniffed and would break into a sudden grin, but otherwise their emotions had both been checked. Snape’s face was passive, and he seemed to be fighting off the urge to grin himself. Lily sat eating toast quietly while one of the adults before her struggled to find something to say, although Lily was really bursting with questions she couldn’t quite articulate. Finally, Snape addressed her:

“How much do you know? What have you told her?” He directed the last at the others.

“Just what she needs to know,” Albus replied enigmatically.

“They told me a bit, showed me a few spells,” Lily said, pointing at the table, “like accio fork-” a fork flew towards her at high speed and clattered against the chair as it fell to the ground. Lily stared at the others, shocked, and afraid she’d be in trouble.

“Oh I’m so sorry! I know children aren’t meant to do that! I didn’t know it was that easy!” Lily picked the fork up and looked across at the adults, who were shocked, while Snape chuckled after a moment, breaking the tension.

“It takes a witch or wizard decades to learn to use spells without a wand,” Minerva said.

“Can you do it again?” Albus asked, leaning forwards. Lily looked at him, then searched for something softer to accio.

“Accio napkin,” she said, reaching her hand towards a folded up napkin by Snape’s side. It quickly unfurled and flew towards Lily, much more gently than the fork had done.

“Wow,” she said softly as she plucked the napkin from the air. Albus clapped and looked at the others.

“Severus, there is no doubt that this young woman is your daughter. I think we can expect great things from Lily Snape.”

“No,” Snape said suddenly, craning his neck towards Albus, “she can’t be a Snape.”

“Whyever not?” Minerva asked.

“We have kept this girl hidden from the entire magical world for so long! Wasn’t the point of all this to ensure no one ever found out I had a daughter? What if He-”

“Why?” Lily interrupted. “What am I?” The adults looked at her and, without a reply to satisfy her, she continued. “Am I a bastard? Is there some reason why you couldn’t have me around for eleven years? I don’t see why suddenly I’m being introduced to all this - why didn’t you just keep me?” Lily looked at Snape forlornly, and something glistened in the dark of his eyes. He blinked hard as he replied.

“It’s a long story. I will tell it to you now, if you want to hear it, but it’s difficult, and you might not want to know it all.”

“I want to know everything,” Lily replied, shrugging. “I haven’t known anything my whole life.”  
Albus and Minerva saw their cue, and took up the breakfast dishes, leaving Snape and Lily alone. The sound of crockery rattling in the next room died away after a little while.

“I don’t know where to begin,” Snape finally said after a pregnant pause.

“Start with who you are, and who I am,” Lily suggested. Snape’s chest heaved a little as he worked out how best to begin. There was a lot he didn’t want Lily knowing right away.

“I know it’s a lot to ask at a time like this, but you must try to listen first and know all the facts before you ask me any questions. You might not like what you hear, but I am going to tell you now before you get any false impressions.” Lily nodded her head, eager for Snape to continue.

“Your mother and I were not married. You were conceived unexpectedly, and I was not told of your existence until after your mother had died. She was killed by a dark wizard known as Lord Voldemort,” he said, his voice hushed a little. “He was the worst wizard any had seen in the magical world for centuries. He amassed an army of witches and wizards to support him, those known as Deatheaters. With them by his side, he sought out to control anyone who wasn’t a pure-blood, and kill anyone who defied him. His persecution of Muggles and Muggleborns was similar to Hitler and his Nazis, if you need something rough and inaccurate to compare it with.”

“What are Muggles, sorry?”

“Those who can’t do magic. By extension, Pure-bloods are those from entirely magical lineages – there aren’t many true pure-bloods left – I’m not a pure-blood, most people aren’t. They are, like us, half-bloods; my father was a Muggle, and your mother’s entire family were Muggles. The ‘half’ isn’t strict. Moving on, your mother was opposed to the Dark Lord, as were a number of others. She actively fought against him and his Deatheaters, but it became too dangerous for her. The Dark Lord was growing more powerful by the day, and she afraid for herself and her family.” Snape paused, realising there would be little good trying to disguise the facts ahead from Lily: Harry Potter was a legend, and her half-brother. Maybe he could keep the last from her? He tried.

“She lived there for a good year before the Dark Lord found them, betrayed by a family friend. He killed your mother and would have killed you too had he not been defeated that night.”

“By who? What do you mean she had a family: did you live with her?” Snape scrunched up his face and breathed deeply.

“No, she was married to a man called James Potter. They had a son who was prophesised to be able to destroy the Dark Lord, and he’d come to kill the boy, but the child stopped him somehow. It was total luck that meant you were in a cot farther away from the door than the boy, otherwise you would have been killed too.” Snape stopped and tried to distract himself by taking a gulp from his empty teacup. Lily sat quietly while she digested all this information.

“So I have a half-brother who’s alive?”

“Yes,” Snape said coldly. “He attends Hogwarts. When you arrive, he’ll be in his second year, Gryffindor. Your mother was in Gryffindor.” Lily looked at him quizzically and he continued, “One of the four houses; Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.”

“Which one are you?” Lily asked, changing the subject from her mother’s family. Snape clearly had some problems talking about it. After all, he had just admitted he’d had an affair with her mother behind another man’s back.

“I’m the head of Slytherin, and Potions master.” Snape bragged a little. He was glad it had been so easy to turn Lily off the subject of her former family.

“You work there?” Lily asked, surprised. “Albus and Minerva said they work there too. He’s the headmaster, right?” Snape nodded.

“Albus Dumbledore, yes, and Minerva McGonagall is head of Gryffindor.”

“Then which house will I be in? If my mother was Gryffindor and you’re Slytherin, then-”

“The school has a Sorting Hat, and Minerva places it on your head and it delves into your mind and choose based on your innermost personality and beliefs.”

“So it reads your mind?” Lily asked, shocked.

“Not how you are imagining it. It searches your mind for your inner personality, mutters to itself and then shouts out a house. You could be put in any of the houses. No one can guess with any certainty.”

 

 

“I’d bet Ravenclaw,” Minerva said, readjusting herself comfortably in the chair in their bedroom. Albus had cast a listening charm on the floor, which allowed the two to hear the conversation taking place below in the dining room.

“Do you think so?” Albus asked as he plucked his nightcap from his head. “If I were to bet, I’d put my galleons on Gryffindor.”

“Gryffindor?” Minerva parroted, “I suppose since the rest of her family was Gryffindor… I would be quite pleased to have her in my house, but I doubt it, Albus. She’s too clever for Gryffindor.”

“Or perhaps too cunning? You wouldn’t believe the stories the nurse told me when I went to collect her!” Albus laughed.

 

 

Snape and Lily spent the majority of that day talking. They spoke of the magical world in far greater and more blatant detail than Albus or Minerva had done, and spoke of her extended family and what would happen now that she’d been taken from the orphanage.

“Albus and Minerva won’t be your guardians; at least, not in the wizarding world.”

“Wait,” Lily suddenly remembered, “what about the orphanage? The head nurse said she’d be checking up on us regularly-”

“That will be taken care of. She will believe you are safe living here while you reside at Hogwarts.” Lily nodded and yawned, adjusting herself in the chair. They’d been sitting in the dining room without moving for hours now, and the tough wooden chair had become unbearably uncomfortable.

“Do you mind if we stop for a bit? I can’t sit down any more,” Lily asked, fidgeting again. Snape shook his head a little and realised they had indeed been talking well into the afternoon after having risen early to begin with.

“First I want to show you something,” Snape said, and rose from his chair. Lily stood and came to stand at Snape’s side as he reached into his cloak and withdrew a crumpled piece of paper. He handed it to Lily and she turned it over to reveal a faded colour photograph. Two children, both about Lily’s age, stood smiling in the picture.

“Your grandmother took that photograph when we were a little older than you. Your mother and I were friends from a very early age. She lived in the next street over.” Snape finished his sentence quietly while Lily stared at the photograph. Lily could see herself in the young girl that stared back, much more so than the boy.

“You looked a lot different as a child,” she said, flipping the photograph over.

“You look remarkably like your mother in build, but there’s more of me in your face. I think you’ll grow up to look more like me. You only really have her small nose and hair. Well not the colour,” Snape added, reaching out to lightly touch some of Lily’s black waves.

“It says Lily,” she suddenly noted as read the back of the photograph. “Was my mother called Lily?”

“That’s why I asked you be named Lily too. She died very soon after you were born. Albus tells me she never had time to name you officially with the ministry. I think you were registered at the orphanage as Lily Evans, her maiden name.”

“Prince, actually,” Albus chimed in, appearing from the kitchen just behind his voice. “I thought it would be… most fitting. But pardon the interruption; I thought you would both care for a rather late lunch, and then perhaps Lily would appreciate a walk around the neighbourhood?” Albus looked at Lily and she nodded. “Good. I’ll have something brought in in a moment.”

 

 

After a small afternoon lunch, Albus convinced Snape to take Lily out for a walk rather than letting Albus take her, to which Snape was only opposed because it meant he had to change into some Muggle clothes. He argued his black clothes without the cloak were nondescript enough, but Albus would have none of it.

“I haven’t worn those things since I was fresh out of Hogwarts!” he protested, eyeing the suit Albus had found in the upstairs cupboard. “I won’t wear it.”

“Now come along, Severus. It’s only for a few hours. No one will see you.” Snape eventually conceded and snatched the grey suit from Albus, sweeping up the staircase to change. When he returned, he looked completely different to the man Lily had become used to seeing that day. Without the cloak, it was easy to see how thin the man really was, and the old suit he wore seemed a little small on him as he tugged the jacket down and tried to adjust the pants to cover his ankles.

“You look perfectly respectable, Severus,” Albus laughed, brushing dust of the man’s shoulder.

“Respectable in Muggle terms isn’t something I aspire to,” Snape replied, tugging the badly-knotted tie from his neck.

“What are you doing with your tie?” Albus asked, taking it from Snape.

“I refuse to wear it. Come on, Lily, before I’m forced to,” and Snape managed to make it look as if he’d swept out of the front door, even without his billowing cloak.

 

 

Lily trotted behind Snape, struggling at first to keep up with his longer strides, but once he realised his daughter was more than ten paces behind him, Snape slowed to allow Lily to catch up. Thrusting his hands into the dusty pockets of his long-neglected Muggle suit, Snape came across a crumpled old piece of paper which he pulled out to inspect as he walked up the road.

“Was that in your pocket?” Lily asked, seeing her father unfold the paper in front of his eyes. Snape glanced at the note before quickly folding it and cramming it back into his pocket.

“O.W.L. scores,” Snape muttered, and Lily chose not to ask yet another question. All the information she’d been presented with today alone was more than enough to have her head spinning, and she was simply happy to walk along quietly now rather than think any more.

As they made their way up the street known as Spinner’s End, Lily had her first chance to observe the suburb in which she would spend the next few months.

“This is a cheery place,” Lily mocked, plucking a dried out flower from a chain link fence.

“It’s always been like this,” Snape replied, his voice distant.

“You said you grew up here, didn’t you?” Lily asked, tossing aside the crumbling daisy. Snape nodded and slowed down as he crested the small hill. Down the other side, Spinner’s End disappeared, merging diagonally into another slightly less dismal street. Lily followed Snape’s gaze as he turned around to survey the street below.

“I lived here my whole life from birth, and every holiday between terms. It’s strange how you can loathe a place so much, but you can never really leave it because it just has too many memories.” Lily nodded solemnly and spoke, staring back down at the townhouse almost wholly hidden by mangled trees and decrepit homes.

“I know what you mean. I hated the orphanage. I ran away a few times, but they always caught me in the end. I guess you can’t really hide a child in a city of men.” Snape stared down at his daughter, eyes wide and glistening slightly, but he kept silent and she continued.

“But when I ran away, part of me wanted to be caught; if I were caught, it meant someone was out there looking for me. Somebody wanted me. I miss the orphanage now for the memories, for my hidey holes and quiet corners. I suppose it’s not the same though; not the same kind of hollowness. I had friends, and they might have come and gone too often, but they were still there to laugh with me and share the loneliness. It was a kind of passive neglect rather than any active contempt.” Snape sniffed beside her, but Lily kept her eyes steadfast on the house in the street below, and after a good minute, Snape finally replied.

“I would have kept you; I wanted to keep you, to raise you here, to leave Hogwarts and that whole life behind. I pleaded with Albus not to take you and send you away there. You were all I had left in the world. I’ve spent the last ten years running it through my mind, imagining a simple, quiet life here with you, over and over; years of waiting, suffering, wondering… they all seem like minutes now. I want to show you my world. I want-” Snape swiped at his dripping nose with the sleeve of his dusty suit jacket and pulled the bridge of his nose gently, thinking. “I want to try, if I can ever, to make up for not being a part of your life and leaving you so alone. It’s selfish and a quick fix for ten years of _passive neglect_ , but I want to help you, teach you, show you what you can be, what you really mean to me.” Lily muffled a few sniffles behind her hand, then finally looked up at her father, who was now staring down affectionately at her. Tears threatened to spill from the wells in his eyes, but he managed to keep them in check.

“I don’t hate you,” she replied. “I know you’re terrified I will – every time you tell me something, you seem so tentative, wary like you’re afraid I’m going to blow up. I don’t know why you should be so scared of me, so don’t be. If… if things are really as you say they’re going to be now, then we’re going to have time. There’ll be time to get to know me, for me to know you. It’s a little later than it could have been, but not too late at all. I want a father. I want you, and need you more than anything else.” Whether or not there was anyone else around, Snape didn’t care. Without a second thought, he swept down and crushed Lily in a fierce hug, to which Lily clung back tightly, until she tapped his shoulder twice and coughed for lack of air.

“Sorry,” Snape whispered, and gently wiped a tear from Lily’s eye with his rough thumb. “Oh dear,” he said, smiling gently. _You are going to change me, aren’t you?_ Snape grinned, his cheeks flushed and face close to Lily’s. With a moment of hesitation, he rocked forward and back on his heels, then stretched forward properly and kissed his daughter quickly on the cheek. Lily blushed furiously.

“I’ve never been kissed before,” she said shyly, and returned the kiss on Snape’s own sallow, sharp cheekbone. The man let out a short, genuine laugh, and squeezed Lily’s upper arm lightly.

“Come on. There’s somewhere I want to show you.”


	5. Diagon Alley

The next day saw Snape wake early, before the sun had barely thought to begin to rise. Having slept in his repulsive floral armchair, as he rose he fought to ease a horrible crick that had formed in his neck. Massaging his neck with one hand, he walked through to the kitchen to make himself a pot of tea and some toast. He would be happy when he could take Lily to Hogwarts and finally de-glamour his beloved hovel. The wallpaper was beginning to make him giddy with all the colourful flowers. Behind him, the sound of material brushing against the sofa caused Snape to turn around, and in front of him was Lily, still dressed in her pyjamas, hair pushed back into a ponytail.

“You should be in bed; it’s very early,” Snape said, turning back to the toaster, which popped and made him start. Grunting in annoyance, he pulled the toast from the Muggle contraption and buttered it quickly.

“I always get up this early; I like the mornings,” Lily said, pulling out a teacup and saucer from the shelf. “Can I have some tea?” she asked, pointing at the pewter teapot Snape had filled a moment ago. He nodded and turned the handle towards her, taking a bite of his toast. “Thanks,” she said, pouring herself some and scalding her lips as she took a premature sip.

“Did you always get up early at the orphanage?” Snape asked, gripping the toast in his mouth and reaching for the cord to pull up the blinds above the kitchen sink.

“It was the only time I could be alone, before all the kids got up. I never had any privacy apart from when I would sneak up to the roof in the early morning. I love watching the sun rise,” Lily said, and peaked through the little space that Snape had managed to make with the blinds. In frustration, Snape mumbled through his toast and waved his hand at the blinds which shot up instantly, allowing a glimpse at the red glowing clouds through the trees in the distance. Snape finished his toast and swallowed, still staring out into the woods.

“I used to be the same. But I’d do it during the day, too. Anything to get away from my father,” Snape didn’t continue, but Lily didn’t want him to. She wondered what this man was really like. His laughing and smiling, and most of all the way he had wept yesterday; all of that seemed to shock Albus and Minerva. They certainly seemed more comfortable when her father was scowling and quiet. Lily supposed he was a closed sort of man, probably one who had never really laughed or smiled; at least not as an adult. He spoke so kindly about her mother, but so bitterly about everyone else. Lily knew it would be a long time, if ever, before she learnt why Severus Snape was the man she saw today. Maybe she was too young to understand even if he did tell her.

“You’re a powerful wizard, aren’t you?” Lily asked suddenly, and Snape turned to look at her slightly bemused. “I mean much more than average, right?”

“What makes you think that?” Snape asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“You can do so much without a wand. Albus and Minerva were shocked when I did it yesterday. Albus can do it too, a bit, but I’ve never seen Minerva without her wand.”

“Albus Dumbledore is certainly a much more powerful wizard than me,” Snape stated, rather matter-of-factly, and in his tone Lily detected a note of respect and perhaps admiration she’d previously not noticed. “But, I suppose, yes. I am more powerful than most, or rather more skilled. Wandless magic is not something most can do, certainly no more than a simple accio.”

“Oh,” Lily sighed, downheartened.

“What?”

“I thought perhaps I’d done something more special than that,” Lily admitted, a little abashed, but Snape placed his large hand on her shoulder and looked down into her eyes.

“For a ten year old girl, that was an amazing show of power. Had you ever noticed you had any magical abilities before you came here? Anything you couldn’t explain that happened when your emotions ran out of check?” Lily shook her head.

“So that was the first thing you’d ever done; a complete, quasi-intentional spell that was controlled and properly executed. That’s almost unbelievable. Most magical children experience uncontrolled bouts of magic throughout childhood, and it takes a few years of schooling alone to get spells as accurate as the two you performed.” Lily looked up into Snape’s eyes for a few moments, blushing. “You make me very proud,” Snape squeezed her shoulder and Lily beamed, launching her arms around Snape’s waist. She’d never made anyone proud before. Snape returned the hug warmly.

 

 

Albus and Minerva came down for breakfast an hour or so later, and after everyone had eaten, Snape spoke to the room:

“I thought perhaps now would be an appropriate time to take Lily to Diagon Alley, before families begin appearing.”

“As early as possible would certainly be advisable, yes.”

“What about keeping her secret?” Minerva asked, earning a nod from Albus.

“I do think even a man with your reputation, Severus, would be hard-pressed to disguise Lily as unrelated.”  
  
“I could dye my hair?” Lily offered, and surprisingly enough, Snape nodded.  
  
“That will do.”  
  
“Come here, child,” Minerva ushered Lily over from across the table, and the young girl came to stand beside the witch. “What colour hair would you like?”  
  
“ _Any_ colour?” Lily asked excitedly. Minerva nodded. “Dark blue!”  
  
“No,” Snape said beside her, and Lily’s smile melted away.  
  
“Blonde then?” she said, and Minerva pulled out her wand, pointing in at Lily’s hairline.  
  
“ _Crinus muto_ ,” she cast, and the charm instantly changed her hair to a beautiful dark blonde. Lily pulled her hair out to see the ends and her eyes went wide. She rushed out to the lounge room and those left in the dining room heard a loud, “Wow!” erupt in the distance.

“Has she received her letter yet?” Snape asked, looking back from the door.

“She has,” Albus replied.

“Would you like me to go get it?” Lily offered, returning to the dining room. Snape nodded.

“We’ll go now, if you’re ready,” he stated, rising from the chair and heading out into the living room. Lily jogged upstairs quickly and pulled out the now worn and crumpled letter, rushing back downstairs. After reading the letter so many times, she was very excited to finally see magical items and creatures for herself – and magical books most of all.

 

 

Snape stood by the fireplace and lifted a silver pot from a rack on the hearth.

“Take a handful of the powder and hold it tightly,” Snape said, putting the pot down low enough for her to see the grey sparkling powder inside. Lily took some and Snape scooped up a handful before placing the pot back in its holder.

“This is called Floo powder, you use it to travel by Floo, or fireplace. I’m going to go first, so you must do _exactly_ as I do so you don’t get lost, understand?” Lily nodded and watched as Snape walked into the fireplace and turned around.

“We’re going to a place called Diagon Alley. Say ‘Leaky Cauldron’ in a clear voice and throw the powder down at your feet. You burst into flames and appear in the fireplace at the pub. I will wait for you on the other side. Ready?” Lily was hardly ready, having been caught up at the ‘burst into flames’ part, but trusted her father as he said the words and threw the Floo powder at his feet, indeed bursting into flames, bright green, and disappearing. When the last of the flames disappeared, Lily gingerly stepped into the fireplace, turned around and said ‘Leaky Cauldron’, then hesitantly threw her powder to the ground. Flames roared around her for a split second, but she didn’t feel much until the warm living room air was replaced by the cool air of Floo. Something seemed to throw her out and she stumbled as she came out of a fireplace in a loud pub.

“Lily,” Snape said mutedly, and quickly swept her away from the din of the pub and out a door into a small back alley.

“That was the Leaky Cauldron. We’re in London now, Charing Cross.” Lily watched as Snape pulled his wand from his sleeve and tapped the bricks of the wall in a certain pattern. After the last tap, he pushed his wand back up his sleeve as the bricks twisted and turned, folding themselves back to reveal the high end of Diagon Alley. Lily’s eyes opened as wide as they could, trying unsuccessfully to look at everything at once. The Alley itself wasn’t very busy considering it was still about two months until school commenced, but there were enough witches and wizards for Lily to see a rainbow of cloaks and unique looks and styles. She saw a cauldron shop to her left, and an apothecary to the right. Up the alley, she could spy broomsticks hovering in a shop window, and she was sure she could hear the hooting of more than one owl coming from somewhere further away. After allowing her sufficient time to appreciate the view, and almost being bowled over by two decidedly drunk wizards returning to the Alley, Snape decided to move Lily along, and they walked down the street.

“Where do we go first?” Lily asked, beyond being able to conceal her wonder now.

“Gringott’s Bank,” Snape said, and they bustled along as a huge, white towering building came into view.

“Oh! Money…” Lily suddenly realised, and looked up at Snape as she walked quickly along, only just managing to keep up with Snape’s longer strides.

“You may have been an orphan, but I’m sure you understand it is the duty of a parent to pay for their child’s needs?” Snape looked down sideways at his daughter. Without being able to find anything to say in return, Lily simply looked back at the looming bank and said a quiet,

“Thank you”.

 

 

Inside the bank, the tellers’ desks towered above, almost double Lily’s height. At their tops, large golden scales sat at intervals with hook-nosed goblins hunched behind them, weighing, counting and sorting coins. Snape walked up to the goblin at the very end of the hall and spoke in a commanding, clear voice.

“Withdrawl for Severus Snape, vault six hundred and ninety-nine.” Snape looked back unflinchingly as the goblin raised its eyes from a ledger it had been writing in and regarded the man before it. Slowly, its eyes travelled further down to look at the girl staring perhaps a little rudely back at the goblin, and it eventually reclined and replied,

“Of course. Mr. Griphook, a cart for Mr. Severus Snape and his daughter, if you please.” Lily looked up at Snape whose eyebrows quirked, and he darted a look over his shoulder before following the other goblin who had come down from his high desk to lead them into the vaults.

 

 

The ride down the carts was exhilaratingly fast, and the frigid underground air whipped Lily’s hair across her face as they sped down to the sixth level below the street. The cart screeched to a halt, sending sparks flying from its metal wheels, and Lily looked up at the huge door of the vault.

“Vault six hundred and ninety-nine,” Griphook stated, and the three climbed out of the cart onto cold, wet stones. A small waterfall gushed down stones on the opposite side of the tracks and Griphook explained, “Water issues from a vault on level negative four, sir; enchanted object malfunctioning. We’re working on the issue.” Snape didn’t reply and Griphook went to the vault door where Snape handed the goblin a key. Griphook inserted the key and, after a series of loud tumblers and gears shifted behind, it swung open with a momentum unusual for such a large, heavy door. Inside, hundreds of glittering coins sat on the floor of the vault, each stacked into neat piles. In the far corner, a tall tower of silver coins suddenly slid and tinkled as they hit the floor, probably from the draft of the huge door opening. Lily stood admiring the great piles of gold, silver and bronze, and followed closely behind Snape as he stepped over the doorframe and entered.

“Is this all yours?” Lily asked, amazed.

“This is my life’s savings. Don’t fool yourself: this isn’t as much as it looks. I didn’t inherit much from my parents; some of this is from your mother, but most is from working at Hogwarts. I don’t spend much.” Snape pulled two drawstring pouches from his robes and handed one to Lily.

“Put fifty silver and twenty-five bronze coins in there,” he said, “they’ll fit.” Lily went off to the silver pile that had toppled over and scooped up the loose coins, counting them carefully as she dropped them into the bag. She noticed they didn’t make a sound as they fell in, and the bag never got any heavier, but she accepted it without question – obviously it was bigger on the inside. She’d read enough sci-fi comics. With the bags full, they left the bank and resurfaced at street level, and Lily pulled the Hogwarts letter out of her jacket pocket.

“Do you know what’s on the list?” Lily asked, holding it up. Snape gently took it from her hands and his eyes flicked over it as he said,

“Not everything. But I know the most important thing will be next. Follow me,” Snape strode off to the left, and a few places down they came to what looked like the oldest shop in the Alley. Its dusty windows hardly allowed the shopper to look in, but in the middle of the window, Lily could just make out a purple velvet pillow, on which sat a light brown wand.

 

 

A bell on the door rang merrily as Snape stepped through, followed by Lily, and it was a few seconds before a wild-haired man came scooting into view on a rolling ladder. He stared harshly, his eyes squinting as if he needed glasses desperately to see who was in the shop, and in a moment his eyebrows shot up and he recognised the man that had walked in.

“Severus Snape,” the old man said, and stepped down off his ladder, wiping his hands with an old rag. “Don’t tell me you’ve done something to your beautiful old walnut wand, have you? You can’t imagine how long it took to detail that handle.”

“I am not here for a wand for myself, Ollivander. This young woman needs one,” Snape pushed Lily forwards sharply by the back, and Ollivander squinted, then started in surprise as he looked back up at Snape. “This is Lily Prince.” Ollivander shook his head and grinned at Snape toothily.

“I had no idea I’d ever have the pleasure of meeting someone such as yourself, Miss. Prince.” Ollivander came out from behind the front counter and shook Lily’s hand with his own gnarled, fragile hands. “I think you’re trying to trick an old wand maker with a simple charm here, Snape. You’re the spitting image of your parents, my dear. I could look through one eye and see your mother, and look through the other and see-”

“A wand, Ollivander,” Snape said curtly, and Ollivander straightened himself up slowly, bustling over to the rolling ladder and whisking himself away into the depths of his store.

“How did the goblin _and_ Mr. Ollivander know-”

“You look just like your mother,” Snape said, not looking down at Lily. “From a distance. But my escorting you around doesn’t do much to hide the fact that you have my mouth, my eyes, my facial expressions.” Ollivander reappeared with a soft leather box, which he slid apart and gently plucked a wand from within, giving it handle-first to Lily. She took the wand in her right hand and held it firmly, noting the thickness and incredible length compared to Snape’s.

“That’s ludicrous,” Snape said, glaring at the wand.

“The length of a witch’s wand corresponds to their depth of personality and complexity. I don’t doubt your daughter is complex, Snape.” Ollivander smiled at Lily and gestured with his hands, “Give it a wave, see what you can do.”

Lily picked a frame on the wall behind the counter and flicked the wand towards it. Nothing happened, and Ollivander stopped tensing and placed his hands on his hips.

“Nothing,” he said, perplexedly. “Try it again, perhaps. On something else; try the lamp,” he suggested, and stood back a little, shielding himself. Lily waved the wand and nothing happened. Ollivander plucked the wand from Lily’s hand and gave it a wave towards the lamp, which lit itself without mishap.

“I’ve never seen a wand not react,” Ollivander mumbled to himself, and Snape spoke up.

“Might I suggest Alder?”

Ollivander looked at him incredulously and brushed his remark off,

“Not for a first year, no, it simply wouldn’t respond-”

“She can cast wandless spells.” Snape stated plainly, and Ollivander’s eyes bulged from his wizened skull.

“Really? Show me,” he asked, and came back around the counter to Lily. “What have you tried?”

“Just accio,” she replied, and Ollivander gestured for her to try. Lily looked to the shop counter and chose something soft to spell. “Accio feather,” she said, and nothing came to her.

“It’s a quill, my dear.”

“Oh,” Lily blushed. “Accio quill,” and the silver quill glided over to her slowly, where she caught it in her hand and passed it back to Ollivander.

“Extraordinary,” he said, pocketing the quill and took Lily’s hands in his, examining her palms minutely. Ollivander pulled his own wand out from his apron and accioed a magnifying glass over, and studied her hands. “How did these happen?” he asked as he turned over her hands, seeing both palms and the side of her right hand scarred, which prevented those fingers from extending properly.

“I’m not sure. I was really young I suppose, because I’ve always had them bent like that.” Snape grabbed Lily’s hand and turned her fingers gently with his own, tutting, but said nothing. “I have a cut on the side here too,” she said, revealing another long thick scar on the side of her left palm which Ollivander had missed. Together, the scars were almost symmetrical. Ollivander released her hands and stuffed his magnifying glass into his apron.

“Could you do another spell?” he asked.

“I don’t know any more,” Lily replied, but Ollivander shook his head and smiled.

“Of course. Alright, without moving your hands, repeat after me: de-pul-so.”

“Depulso,” Lily repeated, and Ollivander nodded, reaching back into his apron for the quill. He placed it back on the counter and adjusted it so it sat in front of one of the shelves.

“Alright, now use depulso on that quill. This is like the opposite of accio.” Lily focused on the quill and pointed her hand, casting:

“Depulso,” and the quill flew off the counter, hit the opposing shelf, and fell to the floor.

“That’s a fourth year charm,” Snape noted, and Ollivander nodded.

“One more, please. I think I can match you a wand if you can do this last spell. Nothing too difficult, I promise.”

“Okay,” Lily nodded, clearly now quite proud she had just pulled off a fourth year spell with no difficulty whatsoever.

“Snape, I think you will need to reverse this afterwards,” Snape pulled out his wand, and waited silently. “Alright, no hands now: Dra-con-if- no, wait, there’s clearly not enough room in here for that sort of thing… Duck-li-fors.”

“Ducklifors,” Lily said, smiling a little. “Ducks?”

“You’ll see,” Ollivander grinned, and stood back a few paces. “I want you to cast this one on me.” Lily baulked and looked back at Snape, whose mouth twitched a little but otherwise told her nothing. Without being told to stop by her father, she turned back to Ollivander and took a deep breath.

“Ducklifors,” she cast the spell with a flourish of her hand, and gasped as Ollivander quickly shrunk before her eyes, clothes and all, into a messy-feathered white duck, with a pattern where his apron would have been. After a moment, Lily burst into raucous laughter. “He’s a duck! I made him into a duck!” she could hardly stop laughing, even as Snape cast a spell behind her and Ollivander reappeared, none the worse for wear, where he had stood a minute ago.

“Astonishing! Was I fully formed? I felt completely transformed,” Ollivander asked, amazed, and thanked Snape for transfiguring him back.

“At the rate she’s learning, you could have gotten her to do that yourself,” Snape noted dryly.

“I’m absolutely shocked! You’re an immensely talented young witch, Miss. Prince, immensely!” Ollivander shook her hands heartily and then whisked around the counter and back onto the rolling ladder, disappearing again claiming he knew the perfect wand. At that moment, Snape moved forward and squeezed Lily’s shoulder from behind, to which she turned and looked up at him.

“That is a seventh year spell performed in N.E.W.T. examinations. Generally they require students to perform them on rats, not humans. That is a difficult spell to master, even as an adult. Minerva would be astonished.” Lily grinned, knowing she was getting a bit big for her boots at that stage, but enjoying every second of being considered special. Snape squeezed her shoulder once more and looked into her dark eyes.

“Imagine what you could be if I’d taught you from a younger age… I’ve never-” _been so proud_ , Snape left out as Ollivander returned with a navy blue dusty box which he wiped with his cleaning rag. He blew the last of the dust off and unwound the cord that kept it closed. The box looked a lot older than the last one Ollivander had brought out, and with great reverence, the wandmaker pulled out a dark, ornate wand with a silver-base and inlaid handle. Lily took the wand from Ollivander and admired the detail of the handle, slowly turning it around. The rounded base shone dully with a silver unpolished for decades. This silver notched into the handle base, then seemed to have been melted up, seeping like mercury, through the lattice-like pattern of the handle, creating a criss-crossed silver detail that petered away to plain wood around halfway up the handle. The wood itself was a dark brown in the light, but black in the shadows of Lily’s palm. It was shorter than the last wand Ollivander had given her by about three inches, which made it feel just right. The weight of the wand’s silver handle balanced out the strange heaviness of the wand’s body, so that it balanced perfectly at the top of the handle. Lily held the wand out from her chest in a natural position and set her eyes on a tall bookcase on the far wall. With a forceful swish, nothing happened.  
  
“Again?” Ollivander asked himself, puzzled. Lily tried again and again, becoming frustrated as the wand failed to respond to her movements. Then, with a forceful grunt of irritation, she whipped the wand towards the bookcase and sent the books tumbling from the shelves in a graceful cascade of paper and parchment. Lily watched, amazed, as the books flew up as if dolphins leaping from the ocean, then twirled around in the air above her head, before setting themselves down to rest once more on the bookshelf. Lily’s hand twitched, bristling with the feeling of her magic coursing through her. When the last book slid itself soundly into place, Ollivander spoke again,

“Alder, fourteen and a half inches, thestral tail core, pliant. You were right about alder,” he said, nodding at Snape. He slowly pulled the wand from Lily’s hands and she let go while he looked over the wand. “This is the last wand in the store made by my great great grandfather. He was the last in our line to use thestral tail hair, the last one who could see them anyway,” he laughed. “This is similar to your father’s, Miss. Prince. Remarkably so. You’re the only other person I’ve ever sold thestral core to,” he said to Snape.

“Not many exist to begin with,” Snape added, and opened his hand to receive Lily’s wand. Snape studied the handle carefully, then felt the weight of the wand against his own.

“Thirteen inches walnut, solid, thestral,” he said, handing the wand back to Lily. “Remarkably similar.”

“The first one you tried was like your mother’s,” Ollivander said, “But clearly you take after your father in much more than just looks.”

“How much are you charging for these things nowadays, Ollivander?” Snape asked, cutting the nostalgia short.

“Oh well now, Snape, that’s the oldest wand I’ve left in the shop, and you remember I couldn’t let a thestral core just walk out. I’m afraid it’s going to have to be sixteen galleons-”

“Twelve,” Snape bartered, although the tone of his voice made it sound more like a command. Ollivander was unaffected;

“Fourteen. That’s as low as I can go. Thestral core, a silver in-laid handle; that’s a piece of history in itself right there.” Snape conceded and pulled out his cloth bag, dipping his hand inside and retrieving a handful of the gold coins. He counted fourteen out on the counter while Ollivander watched, and when Snape was done, the old man gathered up the coins and scooped them into his apron pocket.

“Thank you kindly, Professor,” Ollivander nodded, and pushed the wand box across to Lily. “Yours to keep with the wand,” he said to her, and smiled mildly. “May you use your wand only for the greatest of things.”

 

 

As they exited Ollivander’s together, Snape held Lily by the arm, pulling her jacket sleeve up.  
“Keep your wand up there, handle first,” he said, pushing the wand up her sleeve for her. “It’s a bit long now, but when your arm grows you will be able to bend it more. Until then, you’ll have to get used to it.” Lily tested moving her arm, which indeed couldn’t bend properly with the long wand inside her sleeve. With a little twist, she let the wand slip down and gripped it by the handle as it fell.

“Good place to keep it,” she said, and pushed it back up her sleeve again. “Where next?” she asked, and Snape pulled her letter from his pocket. Scanning the page quickly, he made a list in his mind, and then gave the letter back to Lily, who placed it back in her own pocket.

“We’ll go get your robes fitted first. They should be finished by the time we’re done.” Snape walked back up Diagon Alley with Lily in tow, where two shops up she spotted a second hand robe store.

“There’s a robe store,” she said, pointing to the shabby store stuffed with racks of faded black robes.

“No,” Snape said after glancing briefly through the windows. “We’ll get you new robes. I’m not having you in some hand-me-down rubbish.” Lily was about to protest, claiming she didn’t need to have new robes, when a whim inside her ignited: she wasn’t an orphan anymore, if anything, she was probably quite well-off. It looked like her father could afford to have her in new robes for the rest of her schooling days at least. Still, she felt a pang of guilt.

“I’m used to having old clothes,” she remarked, and Snape grunted something that could have been an ‘I know’ or a ‘me too’. Either way, Lily didn’t pursue it, rather asking, “How much is a galleon worth? In pounds, I mean?”

“I don’t know,” Snape said, pushing open the door of Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions. Inside, two different boys were being fitted for robes. They seemed to be the same age as Lily, but neither looked up as she and her father entered; they were too busy being tickled by the enchanted measuring tapes whizzing around their bodies gathering measurements while their parents spoke to staff about sizes, hats and accessories.

“When I was young, it was about four and a half pounds to a galleon. It might be five and a half now,” Snape was approached by a woman with a clipboard and pair of scissors stuck behind her ear, which stopped him from continuing. Lily quickly did the maths in her head: about seventy-five pounds! For a wand! She supposed they must be something that lasts a lifetime, for that price, surely…

“If you could just stand up here, lovely,” the woman who had been speaking to Snape suddenly addressed Lily and caught her off-guard.

“Sorry?”

“Up on the stool, please, and we’ll take your measurements.” Lily stepped up on the stool and stretched her arms out as the woman asked, then watched with as much fascination as the other children when a measuring tape came whipping out of nowhere and wrapped itself around Lily in various places over and over. When Lily looked up, she noticed her father had disappeared from the shop.

“Did you see where my dad went?” Lily asked the woman measuring her, a little panic suddenly overtaking her. This whole world was new to her, what if something happened? She didn’t know any spells to defend herself. What if he didn’t come back and she was lost? The seamstress declared herself done, and helped Lily down from the stool.

“We can have these finished by the end of today, since we’re not busy,” the woman smiled and asked Lily a few more questions. “I guess you’re going to be a first year at Hogwarts, right?”

“Yeah,” Lily replied, looking at the enchanted scissors that had begun to cut out a black fabric on a counter behind the seamstress.

“Any idea which house? I was a Hufflepuff myself,” the woman said with pride, and Lily smiled at her.

“I’m not sure which house I’ll be in. My mother was Gryffindor, and my dad’s Slytherin.”

“Oh, you could be in any house then! A Gryffindor and a Slytherin, imagine that!” the woman cooed, and made a note at the bottom of her list of measurements. “Well we can still have your house robes made today; we put a charm on them so they turn whichever colour they need to be once you’ve been sorted. Easy done.” Lily thanked the woman while she drew out the bill for the robes. After a moment’s silence, the door to Madam Malkin’s swung open and Snape strode back in. Glancing over her shoulder, Lily heaved a sigh of relief and turned to face her father.

“Where were you?” she asked, trying not to sound put out by the fact that she’d been left alone. She was, after all, used to being independent… to a degree.

“I had an order to retrieve,” Snape started to explain.

“You could have taken me. I want to see everythi-”

“It wasn’t from a place you will be visiting for a very long time,” he cut her off, and stepped up to the counter as the seamstress pushed the bill across.

“I’ve done up the basic first years’ package, which includes everything apart from shoes and socks.”

“That will be fine,” Snape replied, and pulled out his coins, giving the woman a large handful of gold and silver. Lily didn’t quite catch how many coins changed hands, but she’d stopped wanting to wonder. He was spending a lot on her, and they’d hardly gotten through half the list yet.

 

 

When they exited Madam Malkin’s, Lily’s eyes roamed slowly over an ice cream store across the road, and Snape cringed. He wasn’t about to start buying his daughter ice cream; he had standards that she was going to uphold. Luckily however, Lily’s attention was whisked away immediately when she turn to walk with her father further up the alley, and nearly crashed into a table piled high with books. She stopped dead and stared down, then up at the huge bookstore in front of her. How had she not noticed this on the way down Diagon Alley? Lily rushed inside, heedless of her father’s belated,

“Come back here!”

The interior of Flourish and Blott’s bookstore was packed to the rafters with books of all shapes, sizes and colours. Between standard student texts lay piles of ancient editions of history books, children’s picture books, and recipe collections scattered with seemingly no order. In the shelves on the walls and upstairs, things seemed to be slightly more organised, but at first glance, the place was a chaotic mass of papers and books. Lily didn’t know where to begin. She gravitated towards the first table she saw and began sifting through the titles. Under a mass of wizarding nursery rhymes, she came across a title she’d read before: Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger. She extracted the book and flipped it open, thumbing through the thick pages and marvelling at the very existence of a book about magic. For the first time, even after having been introduced to so much already, it became truly apparent to Lily that magic was real, and the potions recipes she held in her hands now would soon become tangible, bubbling liquids in a cauldron before her. She couldn’t help but let out a squeak of delight, to which the man behind her huffed.

“Interested in potions?” Snape asked, and Lily turned around, clutching the book to her chest.

“In everything,” she replied, a little breathless. “I really love books. They used to be so hard to come by. I’ve never seen so many in one place,” she turned back around, her gaze landing on a tiny tanned leather book sitting under a pile on the far wall. She darted off towards it, tucking the potions book under her arm. Snape smiled to himself, proud that his daughter had such a keen interest in books and learning. With her skills, he didn’t doubt she’d prove to be a formidable witch, and the eventual revelations he’d have to make would be severely lessened by being able to at least introduce his bastard lovechild as a genius. ‘Takes after her father!’ they’d say. Snape was thoroughly pleased with that scenario. Lily, meanwhile, had made her way to the upper level of Flourish and Blotts where the more advanced and rarer editions in their catalogue were stored. Within five minutes, Lily had amassed a number of books on a section of table near the balustrade. She piled it high, reading a passage here, marvelling at a picture there, until Snape summited the stairs. Lily looked up abashedly, and the book she’d been balancing in front of her slipped, toppling the mounds of books on the table. They slid across the table top and loudly onto the floor. Lily blushed violently and placed her books down gently, giving them a careful pat, and backing away from the table.

“Sorry,” she said, and Snape allowed her a small smile.

“I’m glad to see you have such a keen interest in literature,” he said, picking up the small leather book Lily had been looking at downstairs. “Of all genres,” he added, flicking through what he found to be an early edition of German short tales.

“I was just looking,” Lily replied, fixing the large pile of books she’d amassed. “I’ve found some of the textbooks I need though.” Lily pulled the potions book from the bottom of her pile and added it to another stack. Reaching into her jacket, she pulled out her Hogwarts letter and checked the books against her list. “I still need four.”

Snape looked down at the stacks she’d made and back to his daughter.

“I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding them. It’s still early in the day; take your time.” Lily’s eyes lit up and she grinned at her father.

“Thanks,” she beamed, and turned around to the shelves she’d been scouring before. Snape went back downstairs to browse the newest additions to the potions section, and the two spent the remainder of the hour lost in the bookstore.

 

 

When a muffled cuckoo clock (somewhere, hidden behind layers upon layers of books) sounded in the store, Snape gathered two books he’d been reading and returned to the higher section of Flourish and Blott’s. Lily had systematically taken over the table she’d been using before, and in a chair nearby she’d nestled herself between yet more books, absorbed in some large green text. Snape cleared his throat and she jolted up, snapping the book shut and placing it on top of a stack beside her.

“Done?” Snape asked as he checked the textbook pile on the table, counting the titles under his breath.

“Everything’s there,” she nodded, and attempted to pick up most of the stack by herself. Snape gently pulled her arm back and took five of the books in his own arms, and Lily picked the last three up. She started to walk towards the stairs when Snape called from behind her,

“What about these?”

“Oh, I was just looking. These are all I need.”

“Is that all you want?” Snape kept a cool façade as Lily’s eyes lit up for the second time, and she asked, hesitantly,

“I can have another book?”

“Of course,” he replied. Lily nearly dropped her books as she rushed back over to the table, resting the textbooks between her stomach and the table’s edge. She deftly sorted through the books on the table, quickly pulling out four books of various thicknesses, and lining them up in front of herself, she judged them as quickly as she could. Snape reached out to turn one of the titles towards himself.

“‘Etymology of Everyday Spells, Charms and Hexes’? You don’t really want this, do you? Why don’t you choose something you can enjoy, not study,” Snape said, placing the book back down on a pile. Lily didn’t reply, instead picking up the small tan book she’d been carrying around since she’d been downstairs.

“This one then,” she said, placing it on top of her pile of textbooks. “It’s got a heap of short stories in it. I didn’t think wizards read Muggle stories.”

“They don’t; Kafka was a wizard.”

“Really?!” Lily asked in shock as they wound their way down the stairs to the shop counter. “That would explain the beetle thing. What about Thomas Mann?”

“I think Albus knew him,” Snape replied, and Lily simply looked amazed. Snape knew it was going to be an interesting time showing this girl the world he’d for so long taken for granted.

 

 

They paid for the books and carried them out of the shop, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string which Lily discovered was the reason why the stacks were suddenly so much lighter. After Flourish and Blott’s, they went next door to the stationery shop, and Lily became enamoured with the endless shelves of soft feather quills. Then she turned around and saw the wall plastered with brass seals and wax, blotters, nibs, knives and ink bottles of a hundred different designs. Parchments of every colour sat in neat stacks in shelves by envelopes, and next to them, samples of a rainbow of ink colours slowly wrote themselves on a scratch piece of paper on the wall. When Snape had declared it was time to leave Flourish and Blott’s, Lily had accepted without a fuss, but he simply couldn’t drag his daughter away from the stationery shop at all. Lily inspected every item in the store minutely, spent minutes agonising over which shade of black ink was the most suitable (for she was only allowed black ink as a first year), and simply couldn’t pass up the chance to fondle every piece of parchment the shelves had to offer. Eventually, Snape convinced her it was time to leave, and she agreed with the promise that he would bring her back again sometime soon, and she could stay all day. Their purchases from the stationery store were many, as Snape’s resolve to limit his daughter had wavered, and she’d left the place with twice as many quills, ink and parchment as she’d need.

 

 

Directly outside the stationery store sat Eeylops Owl Emporium, where a number of owls, two cats, and a tank full of toads sat making a cacophony of animal noises. Lily juggled her stack of books and stationery long enough to poke her forefinger through the cage of a light grey owl who happily accepted a scratch.

“You are not getting a familiar,” Snape put his foot down, prepared for an argument, but none came, to his surprise.

“Of course not! I’ve got so much already. Thank you. This is all so much, I don’t know how to make it up to you,” Lily bowed her head, half in thanks and half in embarrassment. She knew what he was about to say, but a lifetime of fending for herself had instilled the guilt in her far too deep.

“This is no trouble, Lily,” Snape said earnestly, if a little sharply. It was difficult to curb his usual tone and still manage, in his mind, to maintain a certain air of discipline. He was beginning to worry he would become too soft on Lily, and the last thing he wanted was another self-entitled, ungrateful little Potter. But, he supposed, he didn’t have to fear that; only another Snape could come from his girl, or another Evans. He hoped for the good of both.

“First I’d like to see how responsible you are before I allow you a pet. After all, I’ve only known you for one day.” Lily laughed and agreed, moving on with Snape to the Cauldron shop at the top of Diagon Alley.

“Is this the last of everything?” Lily asked, beginning to feel the weight of her possessions, even with the light-stringed books.

“We’ll purchase your cauldron and you can carry your things in that,” Snape said, pushing the glass door open with his forearm, books hanging from his hands. “Then lunch?” he intoned more as a question than a statement, but Lily simply hummed and Snape continued. “After which you can go back to Madam Malkin’s and they should have your robes ready. While you do that, I will visit the apothecary for some ingredients, for you and myself, and I will meet you in the instruments store next to the Owl Emporium. Understood?” Lily nodded and said a quiet yes, while Snape ordered the young store boy to fetch a standard size two pewter cauldron and a basic set of potions tools, phials and some brass scales. They exited the small, pokey store quickly, and Snape directed Lily towards the wall they’d entered Diagon Alley through. 

“I hope a lunch at the Leaky Cauldron will not be unacceptable?” Snape asked coldly, touching his wand to the bricks of the wall once more, although this time only one brick, which cascaded with the other bricks quicker than when they had entered.

“Of course not. Anything is fine,” Lily said, adjusting her things inside the cauldron she was now using to carry her things. Snape walked ahead of Lily and held the back door of the Leaky Cauldron open for her to pass through.

“Up the stairs to your right,” he said, following her through the dimly lit pub. Upstairs was a balconied area full of long wooden tables and benches, but few of the pub’s clientele were seated above. Lily picked a cleaner looking table and deposited her possessions near the wall. Snape stacked the book parcels together and leaned gently over the table.

“I’ll go downstairs and order us something. Don’t talk to anyone if they talk to you,” he cautioned, and Lily pulled a book free from the brown paper stack as Snape swept down the stairs to order at the bar below. When he returned, Lily was nose-deep in her potions book, and jumped when Snape sat down opposite her on the long table.

“You’re just reading that to impress me,” Snape mocked, but his tone didn’t belay quite as much mirth as he would have liked; he was well out of practise.

“Because it’s potions or because it’s a book?” she asked, smirking. “You’re not the first person to berate me for liking books.”

“I wasn’t berating you,” Snape countered, and plucked the book from her hands, flicking to the contents page and scanning the potions list. “I haven’t had a look at this in years,” he admitted, and Lily laughed.

“How do you teach it then?”

“However I like,” Snape replied, and finally managed to make his remark sound more like a joke. Lily returned his mirth with a smile, but still questioned him again, in a more serious tone.

“You don’t really like teaching, do you? Or rather you don’t like children?”

“Why would you think that? Even if you’re on the mark,” Snape replied, and reached for the tea a bar boy had brought to their table.

“Just an impression really. But the way Albus and Minerva react to you… When you smile and laugh, they look uncomfortable, but they seem to relax again once the smile disappears, which is always quickly. You mustn’t do it much, or it would linger. I can only imagine it would be terrifying to be the one on the receiving end of a telling-off from you. I thought a teacher would be more cheery.” Snape listened with a stony expression, but forced a larger than necessary smile when Lily was done.

“You’re very observant. I’d be inclined to say it was all guesswork on your part, and for the most part it is, but you’re right. I cultivate the tough, cold teacher façade because it commands respect. The only reason I started teaching children at Hogwarts was because Albus knew I had a good hand for potions,” he leaned forwards, “and because I was needed there.” Lily was about to ask more, but Snape hushed her and vowed he’d explain more later, in a place they’d not be overheard. Their conversation ceased for a while once a tray of sandwiches and chips was delivered to their table.

“I thought you’d eat more interesting food than this,” Lily mocked as she pinched a chip from the plate.

“After all your excitement, a normal meal will do you good. If you get too excited over some new dish, you’d probably end up choking.” Lily laughed heartily and Snape couldn’t stop himself chuckling quietly along with her. God, when was the last time he’d been so happy or smiled so much? Fifteen years? Maybe more. But it didn’t seem to matter to Snape now. Sitting in a dirty old pub, sharing a meal with his very own child, flesh and blood of the woman he’d loved for so long, and so desperately missed… He’d never been happier. Not in a long time.

 

 

After their lunch, it was approaching two o’clock, and Snape hadn’t forgotten his promise to have Lily home by tea. Although he didn’t really care much for the curfew placed on him and his own child, Snape understood that Albus and Minerva were still technically his daughter’s guardians, at least for a few more weeks. They’d done a hell of a lot for him and his small family already, and that kind of favour deserved at least the respect of honouring their simple wish to have the girl home on time. Fair enough, he thought to himself.

“Do you remember what I told you before lunch?” Snape asked Lily as she heaved her load of school supplies from the table.

“Madam Malkin’s, then the shop next to the owls,” she repeated, and succeeded in balancing her possessions enough to walk straight. Outside, Snape opened the wall again and the bricks folded back on themselves like before, but Lily spent no time watching them, instead bustling through to make her way to Madam Malkin’s. Snape watched her walk off, alone down the alley. Without warning, his nose twitched and his eyes began to sting, so with a vicious shake of his head, he sniffed, blinked a few times, and walked into the apothecary.

 

 

Lily returned to Madam Malkin’s just as a large group of children bustled out the doors, accompanied by a whole troop of parents. The seamstress who had measured Lily was gone, and instead Lily was greeted by a woman in flamboyant robes, with large hair and ornate silver spectacles.

“Good afternoon, my precious girl. What can I do for you?” the woman smothered Lily with the stench of her powerful perfume as she wafted across the floor. Lily coughed lightly and replied,

“I was in this morning for a fitting for Hogwarts uniforms.”

“First year?” the woman asked, and fluttered back around the counter like a grotesque butterfly. She sharply flicked the pages of her notepad back a few leafs, and struck the paper with her painted fingernail. “Lily, is it?” Lily nodded. “Excellent, Hogwarts complete package, paid in full, wonderful!” she chirped, and swished around to pluck a few hanging robes from a rack.

“Now come along and you can try these on for size,” she ushered Lily across the shop and into a changing room where she placed the pile of clothes on a bench and hung the robes up on the wall. “Try them all on together, would be best, and come out and show me so I can check everything’s in order.” The woman pulled the curtain across Lily’s changing room and walked away, judging by how quickly the stench of her perfume disappeared.

It took Lily around twenty minutes to try on every combination of school jumper, shirt and cloak before the woman was satisfied everything was made to the correct size. Thankfully, after the ordeal of acting like a living sewing mannequin, the woman packed her clothes into a neat and tidy parcel quickly, and Lily was out of the shop just in time to catch Snape coming out of the shop by Eeylop’s Owl Emporium.

“What took you?” Snape asked, frustration in his voice.

“That gaudy woman made me try on every bloody combination of this uniform,” Lily explained, lifting up the thick parcel of clothes. Snape huffed but made no reply, instead turning up the alley towards the Leaky Cauldron.  
“We’re done here.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Cue requisite Diagon Alley scene.) So I noticed this was a HUGE chapter at over 8000 words, whereas the story up until before this chapter was 11000 total... But I've been breaking the chapters up into what feels natural, so some will be bigger than others. 
> 
> As for canon and lore accuracies, anyone familiar with wand cores will note the fact that thestral tail hair is only known to be used in the Elder Wand, but it follows logically that thestral could then be used in any wand to produce a magical effect without being a deus ex machina of the wand world (ie. the wands are still able to be defeated and used poorly, see Elder Wand). While Snape's wand core and the properties of thestral tail hair are unknown, I have taken this ambiguity and developed a fitting use for these (and many other) aspects in the Wizarding World, which you will see begin to develop further along in the story. Also, if you think I've missed something or left a plot hole anywhere, expect it to return to the forefront eventually. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	6. Ad Interim

When Snape declared their trip to Diagon Alley complete, Lily sighed with relief, muttered a 'thank god', and followed Snape back to the Leaky Cauldron's fireplace. The man fetched a dinted metal tin down from the hearth and held it out silently for Lily. With the tin almost empty, she only just managed to pinch enough of a handful to get herself through the fireplace.

“Home,” Snape followed, and met Lily dusting herself off in the living room of Spinner's End. 

"This fireplace is filthy," Lily complained, swatting at her white jacket and making dark handprints. Snape pointed his wand at her and the soot vanished before she could make any more of a mess of herself.

"Back again?" Albus called, coming out of the side room. 

"What were you doing in my study?" Snape asked curtly, dropping his stacks to the floor.

"Simply looking for a spot of hornroot for my tea, but I'm afraid I couldn't find any," he lamented, and with a cross look, Snape reached down and pulled a lopsided jar full of orange oil out from his collection of purchases. "Excellent, thank you, Severus," Albus beamed, and walked away into the kitchen before returning abruptly. 

"Ah, but Lily: how did you enjoy Diagon Alley?" he asked. 

"It was amazing," Lily replied, grinning from ear to ear. 

"I could hardly drag her from Flourish and Blott's, let alone Scribbulus's," Snape explained, assembling a group of jars and phials in his arms. "Take this all to your room," he directed, waving his hand accusingly at the mountains of things they’d purchased. Lily hauled her stacks of books up once more, scrambling up the stairs and knocking into her bedroom door. 

"How was she?" Albus asked, and Snape's eyes twinkled for a moment, but he kept a passive face.

"Wonderful," he replied quietly. "She's just like me when I was her age; could hardly think of anything but books. And quills, surprisingly. She's got just about double what she'll need for the year," Snape said in mock-annoyance, but Albus smiled warmly at the man. 

"You look like you enjoyed yourself," he replied, and clapped Snape lightly on his shoulder.

 

 

Upstairs, Lily unwrapped her first two piles of books before returning back downstairs for her clothes and stationery. The cauldron was heavy, filled with parchment and glass phials, but she managed to stagger up the stairs once more, and then came back down immediately for the last of her school equipment. Once back in her room, she eagerly unwrapped everything and laid it neatly in piles on her desk and bed. In the piles, she'd come across a number of ingredients, none of which she knew, so rather than guess, she gathered the jars and phials together in her cauldron, returning downstairs to knock on the study door.

"Dad," she called tentatively, and Snape opened the door. "I took these upstairs accidentally," Lily explained, raising the cauldron full of ingredients so he could see. Snape gently took the cauldron from his daughter with one hand, and turned back into the dimly lit study.

"Come in," he said, and Lily followed, closing the door behind her. The inside of the study was unaffected by the glamours Minerva had placed on Spinner's End. The room was dark and cold, and by the boarded-up window, only a tiny ray of sunlight shone through, illuminating a bottle filled with some dead infant something. Lily didn't particularly want to know what that something was exactly. Stepping forward, the floorboards beneath Lily’s feet creaked, and dust and sand seemed to seep through the gaps between the wood. Lily coughed gently at the stirred-up dust. Placing the cauldron on a workbench, Snape sorted through the contents, lining them up as he examined them. Lily stood behind him in his blind spot, not sure of quite the distance she should be placing between herself and volatile magical ingredients. Snape bent over to a deep drawer under his desk and pulled it open with a painfully loud squeal of wood. From within he pulled out a small metal stand and placed it beside Lily's cauldron. Shoving the drawer closed with his foot, Snape then removed what looked like a typical Muggle bunsen burner from the shelves in front of him and assembled Lily's cauldron, lighting the burner underneath it and casting aguamenti with the tap of his wand. The cauldron filled half way, and Snape turned to Lily. 

"Get your potions book," he commanded, but placed a hand on Lily's shoulder, holding her in place. Lily looked confused for a second, before she realised what he meant for her to do, and she lifted her right hand, pointing it roughly in the direction of her room. 

"Accio potions book," she said, and heard her book tumble and flutter through the air, then slip through the study door as it opened a crack. The potions book thumped hard into Lily's chest as the door slammed shut again, and Snape lifted it from her arms. 

"Are you alright?" he asked, placing a hand against her chest. 

"I'm fine," Lily wheezed, and gave a light cough. "Did I think about it too hard?" Lily joked, and Snape muttered a "probably" under his breath as he opened the book's contents page, running a finger down the list. 

"Ah," he exclaimed, and turned to the corresponding potion's page. "Turn on the lights," he commanded with his nose buried in the book, and Lily paused to think. She didn't know the spell for light, but she was still a little wheezy, trying not to show how much the book had actually hurt her. Instead, she squinted her eyes and flicked her hand limp-wristedly up at the electric light and, to her utter surprise, it actually lit. Snape lowered his book and stared at Lily. "I didn't teach you that," he said accusingly.

"I just guessed," Lily replied, and coughed a little harder, straightening upright to get the air back in her lungs. "Everyone seems to be able to do nonverbal light spells," she replied, and tried not to look too pleased with herself. Snape simply stared at her a little longer, then laid the potions book out on bench. 

"I'm going to teach you how to make your first potion," he declared, realigning the jars to pull a chopping board and knives from the shelves. "This is a simple sleeping draught I teach in first year. I will assist you where I deem necessary, but otherwise I want to see you make it without assistance," he explained, dragging forwards a small mortar and pestle.

"Begin." Lily was hit totally off guard. He wanted her to make a potion? Now? Right now?

With no way of really getting out of it, she surmised, Lily pulled the book towards her and read the recipe through twice before she attempted to locate the ingredients; both to make sure she didn't ruin her first ever potion, and also to allow herself time to adjust to the suddenly strict and frankly scary Professor Snape that had suddenly transformed from her father. 

"Lavender," Lily muttered, pulling a fresh bunch from the various herbs on the bench. "Easy. Valerian root..." she looked at the other herbs bunched together, trying to identify what she could with her own knowledge, then picked up a jar to inspect the contents, which were unfortunately eyeballs rather than roots. Snape reached forward and separated a woody short bouquet from a bunch. 

"This is valerian root, identified by its small white flowers." Snape placed the root next to the lavender and stood back again. Lily looked back down at the book and read,

"Flobberworm mucus..." She picked up a few small phials before coming across one filled with a dark green viscous liquid. Tentatively, she placed it down next to her ingredients. Whether she was correct or not, she didn't know, but since Snape hadn't declared those ingredients together would explode or kill her, she decided to continue without asking for help. But then she read the next ingredient and became lost. "What's standard ingredient?" she questioned, looking up at Snape.

"A combination of various herbs designed to enrich a potion's potency. I make it to my own specifications," Snape said, and pulled a cloth sack from the lowest shelf, placing it next to Lily's ingredients. After gathering everything in the book together, Lily separated four sprigs of lavender from the bunch, and the same amount of Valerian sprig roots. The measurements seemed more than arbitrary, and Lily complained to the same effect, but Snape merely grunted in agreement. For the standard ingredient, Lily flipped through her potions book until she found a chart of conversions which did little more to quantify a "measure". 

"About the size of this," Snape said, handing Lily a small brass scoop. "Considering you had the perspicacity to look in the book for the answers you seek rather than come running to me, or worse, guess; you deserve the reward of an answer." Lily smiled inwardly and took the scoop, measuring out the standard ingredient and heaping it on a cracked white plate, one that looked as if it had been sitting in a garden under dirt and stones for years. Or perhaps Snape had just never washed it.  

 

 

Lily ground, cut and crushed her way through the simple potion, following each instruction carefully to make sure she didn’t make any mistakes. Once she reached the end of the recipe and declared herself done, Snape moved forward and gave the potion an experimental stir, lifting the mixing spoon up to feel the thickness of the potion and smell the vapours that rose from the cauldron. His mouth twitched slightly and he reached for a metal ladle hanging on the wall. Snape carefully dished out a measure of the potion into a large phial, corked it, and placed it to the side.

“Now I will demonstrate. This kind of familiarity can only come from a knowledge and exposure to potionmaking which you are long yet to acquire, but the process of understanding the ingredients you are working with can be learnt quickly. I will prepare this same potion in a method which I have honed from countless preparations. I will do things slowly and explain them to you. If I do this in future, I would advise you to take notes, but for today I would simply like to see how much you can retain from demonstration.” Snape explained all this to Lily as he pulled out new ingredients from the shelves around his office and dragged a larger pewter cauldron from underneath the workbench. Lily watched, rapt, as Snape deftly prepared the same potion, taking both ingredients Lily had already used, as well as new items from jars and bundles. The process took longer than Lily’s potion had taken, even with Lily going slowly, but when Snape backed away to allow Lily to test the final result, the potion seemed to her to be the exact same colour, thickness and smell as her own potion.

“What do you observe?”

“It’s the same as mine, but you used so many different things, and the method was completely different.”

“Good. What else?” Snape asked, and Lily took a minute to observe both Snape’s potion and her own, now lukewarm in her cauldron.

“Mine’s gone thin now it’s cooler, but yours changes colour when it gets cold. At least this part has,” Lily pointed at the green colour of the potion splashed further up the mixing spoon, now cold but as viscous as the hot potion. “I don’t know what else to observe apart from the physical properties. I suppose they’re of different potencies, or maybe they work in different ways. I don’t know of course; all just guesswork on the part of a Muggle.” Lily smiled and looked back at Snape who treated her with an approving nod.

“For a Muggle, excellent.” Snape teased as he bottled his own potion, then began cleaning up the ingredients. Once Snape had assured Lily she didn’t need to help with the cleaning, she returned to her room to peruse her new books and school supplies until Minerva knocked on her door to announce supper in the evening.

 

 

“When are you planning to return to Hogwarts?” Dumbledore asked as he delicately placed a piece of roast chicken in his mouth. His beard shook as he chewed.

“Personally, I will return tomorrow. As to when I will take Lily, I am as yet unsure.” Lily perked up at the mention of her name, otherwise preoccupied with her meal (the best she’d had in her life so far).

“Don’t I go when school starts?” she asked, looking at Albus.

“You will, yes. But I think, for the sake of Severus, he would like to take you to Hogwarts for a week or two.”

“To show you around, let you become familiar with Hogwarts. That way you will fit in with the magical children more easily,” Minerva added, pouring a deep red wine into a dinted pewter goblet.

“I’d really to see Hogwarts as soon as I can,” Lily said, lifting up a forkful of mashed potatoes. “You’ve gotten me so excited now, with all these potions and spells and things. I can’t wait.”

The following morning, Lily saw Snape off from the fireplace before breakfast. Albus and Minerva had yet to wake, but Snape had made something of a goodbye to them the night before. Now Lily stood in the dark sitting room alone, watching the green embers in the fire die quickly. Lily sighed. She wished she could have gone with him.

 

 

But she didn’t have to wait long. By the start of the next week, Snape had returned, interrupting a particularly dull lunch.

“Dad!” Lily jumped up from the table to hug him, and Snape’s cheeks flushed a little as Albus and Minerva smiled warmly at him. As he returned the girl’s hug, he wondered just how long his mysterious, cold visage would hold up against the others.

“Severus, some sandwiches?” Albus asked, waving a cucumber sandwich towards the platter on the table. Snape reached for a sandwich but held it close rather than eat.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” he lied, “but I’ve prepared the dungeons for the new year. I’ve nothing left to do now, so I thought I’d show the new student around,” he said, looking across at Lily who had returned to dissect her ham and egg sandwich. At the news, she shot up.

“Really?”

“Come along for a fortnight and I’ll show you the castle and grounds. I’d like you to be able to navigate to classes without ending up on the other side of the school.”

“Did you say castle?” Lily asked, seeming to have gotten caught up much further back in his words.

“The school is within a castle,” Snape started, but Lily cut him off.

“Really!”

“Yes really, come on. I’ll show you and you can stop sitting around with your jaw on the ground,” Snape gestured, and Lily raced away from her ham and egg sandwich as quickly as she could. “Go pack some clothes,” Snape directed as Lily rushed past the fireplace and up the stairs. Minerva came sweeping out of the dining room ahead of Albus.

“Severus, aren’t you being a little rash? You don’t have to introduce her to everything at once,” Minerva admonished, but Snape brushed her off.

“If she knows where her classes are now, I won’t have half my students absent in the first week. The same will go for your transfiguration classes,” Snape dangled that little promise above Minerva like a carrot on a stick. She took the bait. Snape knew there was little more the old woman hated than tardiness.

“Alright,” she nodded, her accent thickly betraying how put-on she felt. Snape didn’t care.

“Don’t show her _everything_ ,” Albus admonished behind Minerva.

“Of course not. If I showed her everything, she’d probably get lost exploring one of the doxy-infested dungeons and never be seen again,.” Snape thrust his sandwich into his mouth as he turned away, walking slowly up the staircase to Lily’s room.

“What’s gotten him in a mood?” Minerva whispered to Albus, who snickered.

 

“Don’t pack too much. The house elves will wash most of your clothes. Two sets will be more than enough,” Snape said as he pulled some shirts back out of Lily’s battered old suitcase. Lily snapped the case closed and lifted it off the bed.

“I’m ready. Are we going by Floo?” she asked, following Snape back down the stairs. He nodded as he swept around to the fireplace and plucked the powder off the mantle. Lily took a pinch and waited for Snape to stand in the fireplace.

“Dumbledore’s office,” he said in a clear tone, and vanished in green flames. Lily followed him, smiling at her guardians as she disappeared.

“See you,” she waved as she vanished in green. Lily hurtled through the Floo and stumbled a little on her way out of the huge, ornate fireplace. It was only the third time she had travelled by Floo, so she still hadn’t gotten used to the momentum of the journey. The office Lily stepped out in was huge, made of marble and lined with books and moving portraits. She stared at them for a good few moments before Snape pushed her towards the door.

“Pictures can move in the wizarding world,” Snape explained, but Lily nodded at his remark.

“I know; I’ve seen them in my textbooks.”

“I can only imagine your reaction,” Snape said dryly, and shuffled down the tight spiral staircase as quickly as his feet let him.

“Is there something wrong?” Lily asked tentatively, but Snape moved on at the same pace. Once he reached the bottom of the staircase, Snape waited for Lily, then walked on again as she caught up.

“Doxy,” he sighed with exasperation. “I’ve spent the good part of the last week clearing doxy from the dungeons. Something tells me the Weasley twins let a good lot of the things loose before the end of the school year, but I don’t know for certain.”

“What are doxy?” Lily asked, trying to remember back to her Care of Magical Creatures textbook which she had studied briefly.

“Small vicious flying pixies,” Snape replied, and held his hand up to reveal a series of deep, painful-looking teeth marks in his palm. Lily flinched. “They’re gone now.” Together they strolled down corridor after corridor at a quick pace. Lily was too busy taking in the majesty of the ancient, gargantuan castle to really pay attention to any talking. As they made their way towards the dungeons proper, the corridors grew colder and colder. The stone floors gradually became dustier as they walked down staircase after staircase, the natural light from windows being replaced by weak, sparse torches. Eventually, the surroundings became so monotonous that Lily was bored enough to speak.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she peered curiously at the closed doors of the dungeon rooms they passed. They headed down an even more narrow spiral staircase than the one to Dumbledore’s office, and at the bottom were met with a solitary door.

“My office and quarters,” Snape grasped the handle, pushing the heavy oak door open for Lily. She stepped through and into an office not unlike Snape’s own at Spinner’s End. This office had glass windows which let in an unnatural bluish light despite being (Lily suspected) quite definitely underground. The light from wall torches matched this hue, illuminating the hundreds of phials and bottles that covered tables and shelves in the office. The glass made the room glitter beautifully, but Lily suspected that wasn’t something Snape had intended when he was decorating… with cobwebs and dust. Where there wasn’t a table full of potions, a bookshelf sat crammed full, and in the middle of the office sat a short, wide desk covered in parchment. The whole place was freezing; much like the dungeons had become the further they’d walked down. Off to the side, a door stood open, and Snape passed through it without pause. Lily followed him, and in this second room was a pokey living room with one small sofa and a fireplace, unlit. From this room, a few other doors led here and there, but Snape picked the furthest door and opened it halfway, standing by as Lily came forwards.

“This will be your room for now,” Snape said, and Lily squeezed past with her suitcase. The tiny room could barely contain a single iron frame bed, and the side table beside it was squished against the stone wall so much it looked to be splintering. Lily wondered if she wasn’t being stuck in a broom closet. “I haven’t got much space down here,” Snape explained, but Lily quickly cast off his doubts.

“Not at all; it’s a place to sleep. I’ll be very comfortable, I’m sure,” she smiled, resting her suitcase on the bed. Snape moved back across the lounge room.

“The bathroom is this door,” he indicated, “and this is my bedroom. If you need anything at all, ask me. There are house elves who will take care of your washing, as I said, and meals will be taken up in the Great Hall.”

“What’s the Great Hall?”

“You might as well come up and I’ll show you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short interlude. I realised belatedly in my rush to get the exciting parts of the story written, I neglected the in-betweens. Don't worry, we'll be heading off to Hogwarts the _right_ way next week.


	7. An Introduction to Hogwarts

Lily trotted behind Snape as he swept back through the dungeon corridors and up, up, up towards the higher floors of the castle. He made no concession for Lily’s smaller legs which pumped away furiously underneath her as she tried to keep up. Once sunlight began to replace the torches illuminating the corridors, Snape’s pace slowed, and he began pointing out rooms along their way.

“Along these corridors are the History of Magic and Arthimancy classrooms. Further on down are the Muggle Studies rooms. I doubt you’ll set foot in those,” Snape said as he rounded a corner towards the outside of the castle. They crossed a stone bridge and Snape began to speak again but found he was talking to no one. Lily had stopped near the start of the bridge and was hanging halfway off the ledge, staring down into the valley below.

“Get down from there, you silly girl!” Snape roared, rushing back over to pull Lily off the stone wall. “You can’t bloody fly.”  
Lily apologised, her face blushing bright red as she hung her head down to look at her feet.

“This castle is terrifically dangerous, filled with poltergeists, enchanted staircases, and disappearing doors; and here you are throwing yourself off the side of bridges without a care in the world!”

“It won’t happen again,” she said, less abashed and now prickling. Her pride had been hurt. Of course she knew she couldn’t fly! Her father was overreacting, really.

“Come on. Stay close,” Snape said, carrying on across the bridge into another section of the castle. They walked through the archway into a huge antechamber, with ceilings that seemed to stretch up beyond view. Lily stared around at the huge oak doors which were barred shut to her right, and the beautiful ornate doors mirroring them to her left.

“This,” Snape said, pointing his wand, “is the Great Hall.” The doors swept open silently to reveal two shining, enormous wooden tables. Lily rushed forwards through the doors as they swung open in their great arc, and into the Hall. The two tables revealed themselves to be four, reaching from the very beginning of the hall to almost the end, at least a hundred metres away. At the far end of the hall another table sat horizontal on a platform, lined with ancient looking chairs and a great throne in the middle. A lectern stood before the throne, held up by the wings of a carved golden owl, its feathers carrying dripping white candles. Lily looked around in awe. Even the ceiling, like outside, seemed to stretch forever upward, but somewhere turned into a sky. Lily marvelled at the grey clouds that floated above her head, mimicking the real sky outside, although at the edges of the ceiling, Lily could make out what there was of the hall’s top.

“I hope you're hungry?” Snape said as he strode past Lily towards the table at the back of the hall.

“Yeah,” Lily said, following him up. A few places from the throne in the middle sat a large black chair. Snape pulled this and the chair beside it out, sitting himself down. Lily sat in the other, smaller red chair, and cast her eyes over the tables before her.

“The four houses sit at these tables,” Snape said, looking over to the table on the left. “Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin on this side,” he pointed, and Lily looked at the table. Within a month she’d be sitting at one of those.

“This is the staff table?” Lily asked, looking at the throne in the middle. “Is that Professor Dumbledore’s?” Snape nodded as he turned to look at a freakish creature that had appeared in front of the table.

“What will Master Snape have for luncheon today, sir?” the creature asked, bowing, and Lily squealed. In her fright, she whacked her knees on the underside of the table, rattling the cutlery and cups that had mysteriously appeared before them. This sudden apparation of both the crockery and the shrivelled monster made Lily squeal again. Snape winced, rubbing at his ear.

“For heaven’s sake,” he groaned.

“I am very sorry, Mistress Prince!” the thing bowed solemnly at Lily, backing away. “Nutsy didn’t mean to scare you, Mistress!” Lily’s heart was beating so fast she thought the whole hall would reverberate with it. Pressing her hand to her chest, she breathed heavily but calmed down.

“What are you?” she asked, and Snape scoffed.

“How polite,” he muttered under his breath.

“I am Nutsy, house elf of Hogwarts,” the elf bowed again, and Lily leaned forward to get a better look at the creature. Clothed in only a ragged tea towel, Nutsy stood at around three feet high: a shrivelled, wide-eyed thing with huge ears and stick-thin arms and legs. It looked almost like a person who had lived their whole life in a cave.

“Nice to meet you,” Lily replied and looked over to her father.

“Some sandwiches and tea will do,” Snape said to the house elf which then looked at Lily expectantly.

“And for Mistress?” it asked, standing with its hands cupped gently like a real person would stand.

“Sandwiches. Tea. Thanks,” Lily said, forcing a smile, and the house elf disappeared with a click.

“What was-”

“You heard her: a house elf. There are hundreds of them working in the kitchens below the hall. Generally you won’t see them at all, but as there’s just about no one here they pop up to ask for meals. They don’t take orders from students during the school year.” Lily nodded; it made sense.

“I should probably have a better look at my Care of Magical Creatures book,” she laughed hollowly, still breathing heavy from her fright.

“You’ll get used to it, but I’d appreciate it if you’d try not to scream so loudly next time.”

“I didn’t _scream_ ,” Lily retorted, then jumped up in her seat as sandwiches appeared in the plate before her. Snape managed to crack a smile at her, and she laughed.

“Didn’t scream then, did I?” she joked, tucking in to her sandwiches.

 

 

They left the Great Hall soon after, and Snape directed her along endless corridors until they came out into a courtyard. From the ground, Lily gazed up at the castle looming above her.

“What’s that tallest tower?” she asked, pointing up at a strange, white tower. From below, Lily could see birds flying around its top.

“The owlery,” Snape said, glancing up where his daughter was pointing.

“Can we go up there? It must be a wonderful view.”

“It’s full of owl droppings and about two thousand steps up,” Snape warned, but Lily wouldn’t be dissuaded.

“Well I’ll go up then. How do you get there?” Snape huffed and turned around.

“This way,” he said gruffly. If he let her go alone she’d be lost in two minutes. The castle might be beautiful, and an easy place to lose someone when you wanted to, but it was a huge maze to those who didn’t know their way around.

Together they walked through the west wing towards the base of the tower. Going up to the fourth floor, they took a turn into a spiral staircase and wound their way up. As they ascended, Lily craned her neck upwards to peer through the centre of the stairs; it never seemed to end! She checked a few times on their way up, and by the time they finally reached the top, Lily was particularly puffed. Snape seemed to be trying hard to hide the signs he too was affected by the trip.

At the top, they had come into an open room with ceilings over forty feet high. Owls perched in nooks made in the walls and on beams that criss-crossed the ceiling. Everything smelled heavily of dead rodents and droppings, which they waded through on uncleaned straw. Inside the owlery was so loud, Lily wanted to stick her fingers in her ears for the noise, but they were already preoccupied with the smell.

“It’s horrid up here,” she yelled at Snape, who nodded and mouthed out what looked like an ‘I told you so’. Lily stepped carefully across the room to the windows, praying she wouldn’t get anything on her from above, and peered outside. The view was worth the trip. From the tower, Lily could see the whole of the castle. Bathed in a misty, cold day, the clouds were hanging low over the mountains, resting like a blanket over the Black Lake. The castle sat in the mist, a silent, imposing figure in a sea of clouds. The sun broke through occasionally, lighting up a wing of the castle or a forest further away. If it weren’t for the owls above them, the view would have been totally silent and still, like a photograph. In the beams above, a pair of owls started squawking and flapping, feathers drifting to the floor below. Lily darted back across the room quickly and followed Snape out of the horrid owlery as quickly as possible.

 

 

Back inside the castle halls, they made their way to the library, where Snape was sure Lily could amuse herself for the rest of the afternoon.

“There’s so many books,” she whispered in awe, walking quickly down the centre aisle of the library, taking in the thousands of old tomes. She got to the end of the aisle within a minute and stood gazing through the bars of a blocked-off area marked ‘Restricted Section’.

“What’s in there?” she asked, grasping the cage bars like they were that of a jail cell.

“They contain magic that students do not generally need to know about,” Snape remarked, turning the handle of the cage door and opening it without trouble.

“Well that’s useless,” Lily scoffed, happily following Snape in.

“It’s locked to students during the semester. The librarian keeps it open during the holidays. Not _all_ of the books in here are about dark magic.” Lily’s eyes went wide and she frantically tried to read the names of all the books on the shelves as they walked through.

“What is dark magic?” Lily asked. It didn’t seem quite so obvious as everyone seemed to think it was. “The Dark Lord used it?”

“It’s the branch of magic that spans the more unnatural, repulsive and _painful_ uses of magic. None of it is taught at Hogwarts, but if you study it closely, you realise very quickly that it’s actually a larger part of magic than white magic.”

“What do you mean? There’s more of it?” Lily listened with keen interest.

“Dark magic itself is dangerous; its practises include things that could be considered immoral, by your standards and ours, but predominantly is a possessive, corrupting, destructive magic. Wizards who dabble with dark magic generally become consumed by it, and it changes them. It happened most famously to the Dark Lord, but there are plenty of wizards out there right now totally corrupted.”

“But there can’t be that much, really, if it’s all destructive stuff?”

“It’s more than just destruction. There is just as much creation capable with dark magic, but the kinds of things you can make aren’t necessarily helpful or wise to create. A lot of transfiguration in the dark arts can be used to mix animals together, or switch body parts on a human being. Even by wizarding standards, it gets grotesque fairly quickly.” The images that conjured up in Lily’s mind made her cringe.

“But it’s not illegal?”

“Not strictly speaking, no, you cannot be arrested for practising dark magic _unless_ you’re harming others with it. There are a few practical applications of dark magic in everyday uses as well, such as locking spells. If you want to get technical, hexes and jinxes are just as much dark magic as the Killing Curse, if less destructive.” Lily nodded and stopped as Snape reached up towards a high shelf. He pulled down a small, thin book without any writing on the spine, and Lily tried desperately to look at what was inside when Snape flicked through it.

“So I’m not allowed to learn anything about dark magic then?” she asked, fishing.

“Not as far as the Headmaster is concerned, or rather any other staff or student,” he said, cocking an eyebrow as warning. “How much have you read of your textbooks?” Blushing, Lily embellished her response,

“All of the potions, a lot of the spellbooks, none of the magical creatures one…”

“The Defense Against the Dark Arts one?”

“Haven’t touched it,” she looked away, not sure if that was currently a good or bad thing.

“Understand now I am not advocating any delving into the practical application of _any_ dark magic as it will reflect extremely badly on both you and me, but I want you to be knowledgable,” he flipped the book he was holding towards his daughter, and she took it gently from him. “Once, and _only_ once you have read the introductory chapters to the Defence book, read this. Don’t flaunt it about.”

Walking back towards the open section of the library, Lily followed Snape, keeping the dark magic book tucked firmly under her arm. Stopping only briefly, Snape stayed with Lily long enough to explain the referencing system used to catalogue the books, then left Lily to her own devices. He would return before dinner, he explained, as he otherwise had some business to attend to in a part of Diagon Alley restricted to minors. Left alone, Lily thrilled in searching through the aisles of books, but was quickly disappointed by the paltry section of fiction reserved to one dimly-lit corner of the library. Instead, she turned her attentions back to the non-fiction, and to the subject she had most reason to study first. With the impossible referencing system in the library (which Lily could not decide was by subject, author, or just where the book fits), it took her a long time to come across anything that mentioned the subject she was looking for.

Eventually, having come across a collection of wizarding newspapers, her mind jumped at the opportunity to read editions from around her birthday. Under piles and piles of the heavy old newspapers, she managed to muscle her way down to the Daily Prophets printed in 1981. The editions from December made reference to a recently-defeated Dark Lord, so she jumped back week by week, a chill growing in her bones. Each edition, going backwards, was more and more excitedly written, until she came across the November 1st edition, HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED DEFEATED. Lily read the paper with goosebumps crawling all over her skin. The very headline article confirmed everything she had been told by her father, Albus and Minerva. The Dark Lord had been defeated that night by a young boy, Harry Potter, although his parents had died. No trace of the Dark Lord had been found, although the boy had gotten a scar from the Killing Curse aimed at his forehead. There was no mention in the paper of Lily, and she wondered how the newspaper had managed to get hold of so much information without any knowledge of her, if she really had been in the same room that night. Lily sifted through a few older papers, jumping back months until she couldn’t learn any more. By the time she had shoved all the old newspapers back into the stacks, dusk was settling, and Lily made sure she was far away from the newspapers, nose-deep in a House Elves-Keeping Guide when Snape returned.

 

 

“Why isn’t there anyone else here? I’d have thought the castle would have been full of teachers at least,” Lily asked as they made their way back down to the dungeons after dinner. They’d dined in the Great Hall again, and Lily had managed to keep herself under control when the terrifying house elf had popped up to take their orders.

“I believe most of the teachers will be returning around two weeks before term commences; I will send you off before anyone else arrives,” Snape replied.

“How do you know when they’re arriving?”

“The house elves always know. I asked them to inform me when anyone else is arriving. Incidentally, there _are_ the caretakers for the castle and grounds present at the moment. I doubt you’ll meet the groundskeeper, but Filch could be skulking around any corner. If you see him, don’t speak to him. He won’t bother us.” Lily glanced around them as they reached the dungeons once more, and after a little while went to sleep in the tiny closet of a room Snape had given her.

 

 

Lily spent a little over a week at Hogwarts in total before Snape began to worry teachers would begin arriving. Lily had seen just about every corner of the castle by that point, and although the rooms might still have been a mystery to her, she was confident she would be able to get around Hogwarts alone when the new school year came. Her well-trodden path to the dungeons certainly had been worn into her mind by the time she left early on Friday morning.

Snape showed Lily back towards Dumbledore’s office. Having been to the office only once, Lily worked hard to remember the route as they walked the long corridor back to the gargoyle statue. Snape started the stairs rising up by speaking a strange password.

“Bubble gum,” he said with disgust, and Lily snorted behind her hand. The gargoyle began to move slowly, corkscrewing upwards. Lily stood on one of the steps above Snape as they wound their way up to the office.

“Good afternoon,” a cheerful voice called out as Lily came into the officer proper. Albus sat as his great desk, pouring over a mountain of paperwork.

“Oh, hello,” Lily replied, smiling. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“I’m afraid even in the Wizarding world, we sometimes drown in paperwork,” Albus sighed, shifting a lump of parchment from one corner to another. “Off home then?”

Lily nodded, placing her suitcase down by the fireplace.

“Better not dawdle then; I just received an owl from Madam Pince. She’s arriving early to reform the library’s ordering system.”

“I noticed you don’t use Dewey.” Albus scoffed and smirked,

“Well that’s because it’s not very good,” he laughed, and Lily joined in though she didn't know why. Dewey was certainly better than the total lack of system the school was currently using. Behind her, Snape was pulling down the golden pot of floo powder for Lily, which Albus watched.

“Are you returning with Lily, Severus?” he asked, raising his voice as the man seemed a little distracted.

“No, I’ve got enough neglected work to do here. I won’t be returning to Spinner’s End before the start of term.” Lily looked up at her father. “So I will say goodbye to you now,” he said, stiffening up a little under the scrutiny of Albus.

“So next time I see you, you’ll be Professor Snape?” He lowered the pot for Lily to take a handful of powder.

“I’m sure you’ll manage.”

“It’s only another few weeks. I’ll find something to do.”

“ _Not_ magic,” Snape warned, and Lily blushed, mumbling a no under her breath.

“Will you be back to the house?” Lily asked Albus, changing topics.

“I will be in and out, working with Minerva. Term begins much sooner for the headmaster, you see,” he gestured at his swamped desk.

“Okay then,” Lily turned back to Snape and took a handful of powder from the floo pot. “I guess I’ll see you when term starts.”

“You certainly will,” Snape smiled quickly and gave Lily a half-hug with his free arm. Why couldn’t he bring himself to hug his own daughter in front of Dumbledore? He ground his teeth a little as he struggled to answer that. “Spinner’s End,” he instructed, and gave Lily a little push towards the fireplace.

“Goodbye,” she nodded to Albus, then her father. He nodded back, clutching the floo pot in front of him, watching as Lily was engulfed by the green flames and vanished. Snape stared down at the fireplace for a moment before replacing the pot on the shelf, then swept out of the office without another word. Albus watched him keenly with a smile plastered on his face.

 

 

Back at Spinner’s End, the remainder of the holidays went by quietly. Albus was seen popping in and out of the floo most days, and some times closer to term he wouldn’t return until the following day or even longer. As teachers began returning to Hogwarts and finalising their schedules for the new year, Albus needed to be on hand more and more often. Minerva too was suddenly busy, furiously working away at timetabling for the entire school’s cohort. With Albus gone and Minerva distracted, Lily spent most of her time alone. There were no other children in the neighbourhood, she discovered, as an old park in the street up from Spinner’s End was littered with broken glass and cigarette butts. There were never any signs of children, and when Lily went exploring in the woods behind the house, she never came across anyone else.

By the last few days before term, Lily was spending most of her time within a huge gnarled tree. The tree had cavernous roots that allowed her to rest between its trunk like a bed, but the branches above her head provided no shade from the sun. Where it was once a great and mighty tree, time had killed the plant and left its shell to rot and crumble under the sky. Where Lily sat now she was comfortable, but the roots left black mould on her clothes, and when she stood too hard on the wood, it crumbled and splintered under foot. Further down the hill towards a small, manmade lake, a willow stood by the banks, its vines hanging straight down like hair into the water. This was the special place Snape had shown her the day they’d met. Now the vines reminded Lily of her father’s straight hair hanging like curtains around the tree.

“It used to be so much smaller,” he had said, walking up to touch the tree. Snape looked around the ground, wandering across to a concrete wall that sat jutting out of the thick grass and down into the lake’s murky water. Snape had stayed silent after that, not really seeing through his eyes any longer. Lily watched as his vision seemed to be focussed on a distant past, and she wondered what he was remembering. They had left for home soon afterwards, and Lily had yet to return to the lake. The dead old tree was just up a hill behind the house, but the lake was much further away, and with Lily’s bad sense of direction, she had yet to find the place again until today.

“I see why you liked this place so much,” Lily said out loud. “I’d like to know…” she trailed off, feeling distinctly silly for speaking out loud. But still, Lily wondered. She wished she could talk to the children who’d played here under the willow tree all those years ago.

“I wish I could meet you,” she said again, and blushed furiously as a water bird made a raucous flapping up out of the reeds, thinking it had been another person listening to her. Lily sat down in the thick grass and pulled at the hanging vines of the willow tree. The breeze over the lake wrapped the vines around her back as they swayed back and forth.

“I had no idea about you, Mum, about Dad, my brother- half-brother. I never _dreamed_ that I had a family waiting for me out here, let alone in such a terrifying new world. I wish I could meet you. I need you to tell me I’m safe, that I’ll be okay. Dad too. I feel so scared, so ignorant. I wish I knew…” Lily sniffed hard as tears poured down her cheeks and she buried her head into her arched legs. She sobbed quietly while around her, water birds squawked and chirped against the wind that was growing stronger. The willow branches whipped at Lily’s tiny form on the soft, darkening lakefront.

 

 

Lily returned home some time later, when the sky was just about completely dark. She came in through the back door that lead into the kitchen. Inside, Minerva was boiling some potatoes on the stove.

“You stay out too late, Lily,” she admonished, and Lily apologised.

“I didn’t mean to; I got lost.”

“Well lucky you found your way back when you did. Could you please set the table? Albus sent me an owl: he won’t be returning and is sorry he can’t be here in person to see you off, but he sends his best wishes.”

“Thanks,” Lily smiled as she pulled some old white plates from the cupboards. After she set the table, Lily and Minerva enjoyed a light supper before retiring early, ready for the holidays to finally be over. Tomorrow was going to be a huge day.


	8. The Sorting Ceremony

On the morning of the first day of September, Lily awoke even earlier than usual. She took the extra time to have an early cup of tea and toast, shower, and then walk up the street to see the sun rise. At the top of the hill on Spinner’s End, Lily stood watching the sun piercing through the dark clouds. She stood where Snape had taken her on the day they’d met, and her heart leapt at the thought of seeing him again so soon. Slowly, the sun rose fully past the horizon and doused the quiet street in thick, warm sunlight. With the sudden lifting of the night, birds in their trees were shocked into song, and the neighbourhood seemed to gradually come to life before Lily’s eyes. Down in number 13, Lily spied the kitchen curtains parting and knew it was time to head back home.

 

 

“Lily?” Minerva’s Scottish brogue floated over from the kitchen, and she appeared in the doorway stirring a cup of tea. “You know you shouldn’t go walking by yourself, especially around this neighbourhood,” she chided, and Lily looked suitably abashed.

“I’m sorry, Minerva. I just wanted one more look at the street before I left.” Lily followed her into the kitchen and poured herself some tea from the steaming pot.

“Is your trunk packed?” Minerva asked, sitting herself down at the rickety kitchen table. Lily fished around the cupboards looking for the last of Albus’s biscuits.

“Since last night,” Lily beamed, and made a quiet ‘ah ha!’ when she found the silver foil wrapper of the digestives. “Do I wear my Muggle clothes on the train? Is the train part of the magical world? Can I do spells there?” Lily suddenly burst out, her questions almost too fast for her tongue to keep up.

“Slow down,” Minerva smiled, placing her teacup down in its saucer. “Yes, you’ll have to put your Muggle clothes on so we can get to King’s Cross Station. Once you’re on the train, you will change into your formal school robes for the Sorting Ceremony. And yes, you are _allowed_ to do spells on the train, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” Minerva held Lily’s gaze for a moment, and a twinkle came into her eye. “Because I think you might impress the first years a little too much.” Both ladies laughed, Lily grinning madly.

 

 

“Are you ready?”

“I’m coming!” Lily called from upstairs and came out onto the landing. “What about my trunk?” she asked Minerva from the top of the stairs.

“Watch out, dear,” Minerva replied, and pulled out her wand, casting a nonverbal accio. The trunk floated up slowly and made its way out of Lily’s room, gliding swiftly down the stairs to land at Minerva’s feet. The older witch then cast a transfiguration spell Lily didn’t quite catch the name of, and the trunk transformed into a modern suitcase complete with wheels and a pull-out handle.

“There. That looks much more in character,” she smiled down at her work briefly. Lily came down the stairs to look at the transfigured case with awe.

“Is everything still inside it?” she asked, incredulously.

“Yes, but don’t go opening it until it transfigures back into a trunk; otherwise everything inside will fly out.”

“Wow. I can’t wait for transfiguration!” Lily declared, and Minerva puffed up a little at the girl’s enthusiasm.

“I can’t wait to teach you. But now we have to get to the station. I’m afraid it might be quite a walk from where we need to apparate.”

“Apparate?”

“I believe Muggles might call it something akin to teleportation.” Lily’s eyes widened.

“We’re going to teleport? Wow! I’m sorry,” she suddenly said, abashed at how excited she was becoming over all this.

“Don’t be, child. Frankly, I’d be disappointed if you _weren’t_ excited! It makes taking a new student to Hogwarts much more rewarding. Now, apparation; you are much too young to be able to apparate – physically, not in terms of skill, I’m sure – so you’ll have to hold on to my hand very tightly. Do you get motion sickness?”

“No…” Lily replied.

“Good. First times are always a little harrowing. It’s much like being on a rollercoaster, but going inwards.”

“I’ve never been on a rollercoaster.”

“Oh. Well, nevermind. Best do this quickly. Are you ready to leave, everything packed?”

“My room’s empty. I’m ready.

“Alright then,” Minerva reached out to hold the suitcase handle and proffered her right hand to Lily. “Hold on tight.”

Lily held Minerva’s hand and almost instantly felt herself hurtling inwards. Everything around her became a blur of white and grey, then green and blue, and then grey once more as they seemed to suddenly stop, sending Lily flat onto the ground as her legs failed to anticipate the hardness beneath her feet. Lily gasped, winded, as she tried to straighten up.

“How was that?” Minerva asked, helping Lily gingerly to her feet. “Not sick?”

“No,” Lily panted, swallowed, and straightened up properly. “I’m okay. Hitting the pavement just knocked the air right out of me. Are we in London now?”

“Just a few blocks away from King’s Cross. This way,” Minerva pointed down the street and Lily took her suitcase from the woman’s hand as they walked away.

“So shouldn’t you be getting ready at Hogwarts by now?” Lily asked after a few blocks.

“I prepared most of my classroom weeks before Albus and I moved to Spinner’s End, and the rest you saw me doing. I haven’t much left to do but welcome back the staff for the new year. Albus helped with some of the Gryffindor work.”

“Which house do you think I’ll be in?” Lily knew what Minerva would say, but getting closer to the Sorting Ceremony was making her more and more nervous; would she be a Gryffindor like her mother had been, or a Slytherin like her father? It seemed to matter a lot to the few witches and wizards she spoken to about it, like the woman in Madam Malkin’s Robes who had been so proud of her Hufflepuff house.

“There’s no way to know. The Sorting Hat decides based on what it sees in you.”

“But which house do you _think_ I’ll be in? I know Dad wants me to be in Slytherin – I can just tell whenever he talks about the houses. Do you think he’ll be disappointed if I’m not?”

“I’m sure Severus will be proud whichever house you’re placed in. You take after your father so much, Lily; I think you will more than likely be placed there.” Lily smiled and was silent for a few paces.

“Do they mean anything? Does it mean something special if you’re a Gryffindor, like you’re good at something others aren’t? Dad was talking about Mum and her… uh, husband, and it sounds like they were Gryffindors because they were similar. And someone laughed when I said my parents were Gryffindor and Slytherin. Do you know what I mean?” Minerva smiled.

“The Hat has a song that you’ll probably hear tonight. ‘ _You might belong in Gryffindor where dwell the brave of heart, their daring nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart; you might belong to Hufflepuff where they are just and loyal, those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil; Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw if you’ve a ready mind, where those of wit and learning will always find their kind; or perhaps in Slytherin you’ll make your true friends, those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends_ ’.”

“They don’t really make Slytherin sound as nice as the others.”

“Slytherins have something of a reputation,” Minerva added cautiously. “They’re not necessarily seen to be the… warmest of students. At Hogwarts, Slytherins tend to stick together, whereas the other houses are more welcoming. It stems largely from the fact that purebloods and the wealthier students tend to be placed in Slytherin. But I don’t want you to form any opinions based on that; there are good, honest people in Slytherin, and you will be a wonderful student no matter which house you are placed in.”

King’s Cross Station appeared around a corner and Minerva turned to Lily, stopping her for a moment.

“Now from here on out, you remember what to do?” she asked.

“From now on you are Professor McGonagall, with Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore, neither of which knows me save as teachers. I’m an orphan through and through, so nothing to say about me apart from that I was at Southampton until you picked me up to bring me here.”

“Excellent. Now there’s one more student this year who’s an orphan – Professor Sprout helped them make the transition to Hogwarts. You may meet them at some point, but just so you know you are not necessarily a special case at Hogwarts. Understood?”

“Of course. Oh, _Professor_? What about my half-brother? He doesn’t know I exist, does he?”

“Not at all. I think-” Minerva paused, trying to reach the subject delicately, “At least for the meantime, you shouldn’t approach him about _all this_. Not until we can perhaps break it to him more gently. He and Professor Snape are not necessarily warm to each other, and perhaps knowing that his mother…” Minerva trailed off, but Lily got her point.

“I understand. Thank you, Minerva, for everything. This has changed my life.” Lily threw her arms around the witch and gave her a quick but fierce hug.

“My pleasure, dear. If you ever need someone to talk to at Hogwarts, even if I’m not your head of house, know that you can come to me at any time. My door will be open.”

“Thank you, Professor.”

 

 

At the station they passed through the entrance to platform 9 ¾ without incident, although Lily’s step hesitated a little as she walked headlong into the brick wall, which caused her to trip up on her suitcase as she appeared on the other side. The platform inside was thick with steam as they’d appeared right near the engine. Lily looked up to see the huge iron face of the Hogwarts Express chuffing out steam ready for its departure. The train was huge compared to the trains on the Tube, or even the more modern trains Lily had taken to and from Southampton.

“Come along to the far end of the train and we’ll get your things loaded on board.” Minerva said a many cheery hellos as she walked Lily down to the end of the train, but none stopped to chat, all being too busy with their own children. Most were in Muggle clothing, but a good few seemed to be dressed in what looked like more formal versions of the Hogwarts robes. One red-headed boy shuffled past and Lily noticed the prefect badge pinned proudly to his out robes. Everywhere, children were being hugged and seen off by parents, hanging out the windows of the train here and there. Lily and Minerva pushed their way through to the back of the train and had Lily’s suitcase loaded (which transfigured back into a trunk as soon as it got onto the train, toppling the porter who was carrying it).

“First years are in the front carriages, I’m afraid. We’ll have to head back up.” They pushed their way back up in better time as the platform cleared of students. Up ahead, a conductor blew a whistle.

“Oh, we’re a little later than I thought,” Minerva lamented, glancing up at the station clock and noticing it was two minutes to eleven. “You’d better get on board.” They reached the second carriage and Minerva waved her arm at the steps. “Up you go. You have fun, meet your new classmates. I’ll see you tonight at the Sorting Ceremony. Here,” she pressed two shining Galleons into Lily’s hand. “Try the chocolate frogs; you’ll love them,” she said, squeezing Lily’s hand. The girl squeezed back and said a quiet goodbye before she headed into the train. On the platform, the conductor shouted his ‘all aboard’ and moments later the train jolted to life and began to pull out of the station.

 

 

Inside the train was packed with students in the corridors, and half the compartments were full to bursting with excited first year students. Lily tried briefly to look in the first compartment, but it was so packed full that students were standing in the doorway. Lily walked further up the train carriage looking into each compartment until she found one with only four other students. Pausing for a moment, another girl saw Lily standing in the doorway and waved for her to come in.

“Hello!” she beamed, “Come join the group!” The cheery girl with long white hair made her fellow students slide across the seat to let Lily in, and she sat on the edge, leaning forwards to introduce herself.

“I’m Lily.”

“My name’s Luna Lovegood,” the white-haired girl declared, holding her hand out for Lily to shake.

“And I’m Ginny Weasley,” said the red-haired girl hidden behind Luna.

“Colin Creevey,” a mousy looking boy with a huge camera strapped around his neck announced.

“Rowena Harper,” squeaked the small girl next to Colin.

“Nice to meet you all,” Lily replied.

“So, do you have any family at Hogwarts?” Colin asked.

“No, do you all?”

“I’m the youngest with _six_ brothers,” said Ginny.

“Wow! Six! I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have that many siblings.” Lily replied.

“Sometimes I wish I were an only child…” Ginny laughed.

“I don’t think it’s all that great,” Luna said. “There’s never anyone your age to play with. I always wished _I_ had a brother. In fact I made one once, from a snowman. My mother helped me enchant him, but he melted in the spring…” Luna’s eyes looked into the distance and no one said anything for a while.

 

 

“Anything from the trolley? _Any_ thing from the trolley?” An old woman came down the aisle around lunchtime when some of the students had begun pulling out sandwiches and cakes.

“Oh, yes,” Lily said suddenly, jumping up from her seat and reaching into her pockets. The kindly-looking trolley lady slid open the compartment door and looked expectantly at the young girl.

“Could I please have a chocolate frog,” Lily said whilst perusing the trolley. “And what else is good?” she asked turning around to her new friends in the compartment.

“Get some Bertie Bott’s!” Ginny said excitedly, and Lily turned back to the old woman.

“One of those too.”

“There you go dearie; two sickles please.” Lily placed a galleon in the woman’s hand and she spent a good amount of time fishing out the correct change.

“Oh I’m sorry. That’s the only coin I had,” Lily said abashedly.

“Not to worry. I have plenty of change,” the woman beamed, then slid the compartment door closed and carried on down the train. Lily looked down at the Bertie Bott’s she’d bought.

“What are these, Ginny?” she asked, handing them over to the red-haired girl. “Jelly beans?”

“Better than Muggle jelly beans! These can be any flavour you can imagine; grass, steak and kidney pudding, vomit – my brothers always seem to get earwax flavour.”

“Eugh, are there any _good_ flavours?” Lily asked as Ginny handed the box back.

“Plenty,” said Ginny. Lily opened the box and handed it back to her.

“Well I’m not going first. You have one.” Ginny picked out a clear jelly bean from the box and tentatively bit into it.

“It tastes like snow! So cold,” Ginny laughed, trying quickly to munch down the cold treat before her teeth froze.

“Try one, Luna,” Lily said, and Ginny handed the box to the girl beside her. Luna picked out a strange purple coloured bean and ate it quickly.

“Oh, it’s just violet. I was hoping for aubergine,” Luna said disappointedly, handing Lily the box. Lily passed it across to Colin, Rowena and Blake (another boy who had joined the compartment later on). They all tried a bean, but none came out particularly dreadful. Finally, it was Lily’s turn. Very carefully, she picked out a red bean she decided looked the least offensive of the lot, and slowly placed it in her mouth and bit down. For a moment, she couldn’t quite make out the taste, but then it hit her:

“That’s chilli!” Lily cried out, and the compartment erupted into raucous laughter. Luna held out her flask of pumpkin juice and Lily took a good sip, holding it in her mouth to stop the sting. When the bean was swallowed, she took a deep breath, red in the face.

“I thought a red one wouldn’t be bad!” Rowena and Blake were doubled over the near the window, tears streaming down their face, and Colin took a snapshot of Lily mid-sentence.

“Hey!”

“I’ll give you a copy when I develop it!” Colin laughed with the others until a prefect told them to quieten down.

“Spoil sport!” Ginny stuck out her tongue at the boy, the same one Lily had seen on the platform.

“You’d best get dressed soon, all of you. Only a few hours until we get to Hogsmeade. You don’t want to have to wait in line later on.”

“A few _hours_ , Percy! We know when to go,” Ginny complained back, and the boy left without another word.

“I saw him on the platform. Is he your brother?” Lily asked.

“Yeah,” Ginny said, taking another bite from her sandwich. “Watch out for him. He plays by the rules.”

 

 

Eventually the students went down the train to change into their uniforms and spent the remainder of the train ride relaxing. A few students came and went introducing themselves, and Colin, Rowena and Blake went to meet a few others before coming back, but otherwise the trip remained largely uneventful. The early start (for some) to get to King’s Cross and the length of the train journey meant the thrill of meeting new people had soon worn off, and they were growing tired of the incessant rocking of the train. Outside, the sky was only just darkening when they arrived at Hogsmeade. Some prefects came along the corridors to order the first years off the train.

“First years! Follow me, first years over here!” a booming voice carried over the sound of the cooling steam train. The voice belonged, quite fitting for its depth, to the largest man Lily had ever seen! At the front of the train stood what Lily could only describe as a giant holding a lantern, his wild hair and beard covering his face. He wore a huge overcoat which made him look like a big brown tree towering above the tiny first year students. A little sceptically, Lily and her friends made their way over to the man, who waited until the platform had cleared of the older students, leaving only the younger children behind.

“Alright, first years. My name is Hagrid; I’m the groundskeeper at Hogwarts. Follow me to the boats, and no dawdling now.”

Together, they all walked down to the end of a dark, motionless lake. The sun had fully set by now, and a mist was rolling in over the lake, making it look as if they were to set sail into an abyss. Lily got in a boat with Luna, Ginny and Blake. Colin and Rowena followed in another boat with two other girls. Silently, the boats pushed off from the shore, gliding effortlessly across the freezing lake. The boat ride seemed to last forever in the gloom of a night almost without a moon. But finally, someone in one of the first boats called out, and the students all perked up. The collective gasps that sounded were like echoes across the still waters, piercing the mist with sound. Lily watched as high above them a monstrously huge castle glowed in the cliff face. The castle had never looked more amazing than it did in that moment.

“So this is why they take the first years on boats. What a way to see Hogwarts for the first time!” Ginny said, her neck craned skyward.

 

 

Soon their boats docked near a huge stone staircase, and quickly the students followed Hagrid up to the castle proper. The hundreds of stone stairs they had to climbed seemed like nothing in their excitement to reach the top. Ginny and Lily ended up reaching the front of the group of students in their excitement, and were the first to see an old witch standing outside some grand oak doors at the top of the staircase. Behind the doors, lights shone through, and the din of a great number of people talking carried through the thick wood. Lily knew they’d reached the Great Hall. Beyond those doors was her father, the Sorting Ceremony, and the beginning of her new life. But first, she had to listen to the witch in emerald robes.

“Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments you will pass through these doors and join your classmates, but before you take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now while you're here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points. Any rule breaking and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup. Follow me.”

McGonagall gave Lily a brief smile as her gazed passed over her in the front of the group, and as she walked forwards, the large oak doors opened before her, hushing the Great Hall as she led the students in. Lily’s eyes didn’t know where to look first as she entered the hall; it had changed so much since the last time she had been there. The first years passed between immensely long wooden tables lined with students wishing warm welcomes and hellos, under floating candles and a ceiling that turned to clear sky somewhere above them. The walls and ceiling glittered, and centrepieces on the tables bathed the whole hall in a warm yellow glow, smelling like a crackling fire raged somewhere inside although none could be seen. Far ahead at the front of the hall at the staff table, Dumbledore sat proudly in his lavish chair at the head of the table. To his left a couple of seats down, Snape sat expressionless staring into the crowd of new students. With the sea of black uniforms, Snape could not pick out Lily until the group had reached the front of the room, and there he noticed her close to the front. Almost imperceptibly, Snape nodded his head, but otherwise offered no acknowledgement of Lily’s presence.

“Now when I call your name you will come forward, I shall place the Sorting Hat on your head, and you shall be sorted into your houses.” McGonagall paused to read the first name on the list. “Blake Abney.” Blake pushed gently past Lily on his way up and she offered him a quiet “good luck”.

“Thanks,” he smiled back, heading up to sit in front of the whole school. He looked a little dazed, but then was distracted as the Sorting Hat spoke out loud.

“Some noble traits in this young boy. Caring, willing, brave. You’re certainly a hard-worker, aren’t you my boy. It’s a tough choice between two magnificent houses here. I think perhaps… GRYFFINDOR!”

The second table in the hall erupted in cheering, as did the other tables in polite claps. Lily and Ginny clapped and cheered as Blake tore down the stairs to the table.

“I’m so glad he didn’t get in to Slytherin!” Ginny whispered in Lily’s ear, and Lily’s blood ran cold.

“Why not?” she whispered back nervously.

“I could never be friends with a Slytherin! They’re horrible people, and their head of house is a monster. That man up there, all in black.” Ginny nodded her head towards the staff table, and Lily hung her head a little, looking away. Maybe it wasn’t going to be so easy, after all.

McGonagall called for the next student, and the next, while Lily waited for her turn. Ginny went up and was placed into Gryffindor before the Sorting Hat had even been placed on her head, and Luna went off to Ravenclaw with a smile and a wave over Gryffindor’s direction. There weren’t too many students left before Lily was called up to the front.

“Lily Prince.” Not being intimidated by the largely friendly crowd, Lily walked up the stool and sat down. McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her head and stepped away. The Hat took a few seconds to speak up, making Lily nervous.

"Oh, what a mix we have in here! My dear girl, where to put you indeed! I had enough trouble with other members of your family, and I certainly didn’t expect someone like you to come along!" The Hat snickered and Snape scowled at it from behind, hoping like hell it wouldn't make anymore specific comments. Lily felt his same sense of foreboding. The Hat isn’t going to say anything more revealing, is it? Now she might have to answer questions about her parents. Great.

"I see Hufflepuff in you, yes, but only a little; everything there is overshadowed. Ravenclaw, yes, in bucketloads! And Gryffindor is positively coursing through your veins. But Slytherin... I do think Slytherin is where your talents lie, my girl; certainly where your abilities will shine most through. But the courage of a Gryffindor persists... Very tough decision, yes.” Lily was torn. In her mind she had been certain of Slytherin – her father’s own house, but now after Ginny’s hatred… The hat was saying she was a strong Gryffindor like her mother and her new friends had largely been placed in Gryffindor. What would the Hat do?

‘I think you know best,’ Lily thought, and the Hat felt like it had nodded in consent to her thought.

“I think perhaps I should go by the achievements of those witches and wizards of your past." 

Please be Slytherin you mean, Lily suddenly thought desperately in her head. She’d made her mind up without even realising.

"With pleasure, my dear," the Hat replied, and sounded like it was smiling. "We wouldn't want to disappoint. Let it be SLYTHERIN!"

The far right table erupted in whooping and applause, and Lily trotted down quickly once McGonagall had plucked the Sorting Hat from her head. At the staff table, Dumbledore glanced over slyly at Snape, who was staring at Lily, a smile impossible to keep off his lips. Snape quickly covered it with his hands and a mock cough before any student caught him so severely out of character. He didn't want to blow Lily's cover on the very first night; never would be preferable. The Slytherin table quietened down to the shout of a prefect, and the next student was called up to the Sorting Hat, but neither Snape nor Lily were listening to the Hat any longer. After introducing herself to the closest members on her table, Lily chanced a brief glance up at Snape, whose smile was masked behind his goblet, but Lily could make out the wrinkling of his eyes. She smiled back quickly, flicking her eyes past Dumbledore, who was absorbed in the next student's sorting. She knew he too would have been smiling down at her moments before. Lily grinned to herself and turned back to her table, applauding as the next student rushed over to sit next to her.

 

 

A few minutes later they were down to the last three students to sort. As a young girl ran over to the Hufflepuff table, Lily glanced back up at the staff table. Snape seemed to be prematurely drinking down something frothy when the mangy groundskeeper, Filch, shuffled up unceremoniously and whispered something in his ear. Lily saw her father recoil from the filthy looking man and hurtle out of his chair, whisking away out a back door from the Great Hall. She wondered what the man had said to him. Soon after, the last student was sorted and Dumbledore stood up to say a very brief few words.

“I will not keep you waiting much longer; I know you have all had a long day on our Hogwarts Express. The running out of pumpkin pasties certainly has left a few of you starving, so I have heard. I would like to welcome each and every one of you to Hogwarts, both returning and new. Here you will live with your houses who will be like your family, and together you will discover and learn every day new things. You may have many questions right now, but rest assured they will be answered in time. For now, let the feast begin.”

Dumbledore raised his hands and the tables magically filled with food. Lily had never seen so much food in her life! In front of her, a huge ham had appeared ready-cut, and beans and honeyed carrots sat in smaller bowls around it. Goblets appeared filled with pumpkin juice and butter beer, and Lily barely paused before digging in with her other Slytherins.

Snape returned almost an hour later when the feast was wrapping up. Having missed the main course, he sat there scowling at a cream trifle that had appeared in front of him. There seemed to have been a shuffle-round as McGonagall too had disappeared and reappeared with Snape at the end of the feast. Lily briefly noticed the two huddled in quiet conversation as a prefect was addressing her new cohort.

“Very almost Gryffindor, Severus,” she said in a hushed tone, looking down at the young girl laughing and joking with the other first years around her.

“I thought that bloody hat was going to spill the whole lot,” Snape said, taking a deep swig from his goblet.

“The hat never does, really. Remember Potter’s little exposition? There was nothing of substance in that, either. You had nothing to worry about.”

“Perhaps not, but now it’s been revealed her parents went to Hogwarts. If any of those students are clever enough, so help me, to start putting things together, they might get it into their heads that there’s a reason she’s an incredibly powerful witch in Slytherin.”

“You can’t protect her forever, Severus. Sooner or later someone is bound to find out. Five sickles it ends up being Potter.” Snape cringed at that comment and turned back to his small plate, then sighed at the melting cream mess and pushed it away.

 

 

After the feast, a Slytherin prefect took all the first years back to the common room, pointing out corridors, short cuts, and points of interest along the way. When they had almost reached under the lake, they met the Bloody Baron (who had been dining with the senior students at the feast). Now he was bent on terrifying the new first years. Lily laughed as a few of the younger girls almost wet themselves as he flew through them. When they got to the Slytherin common room entrance, the prefect showed them how to open the wall with their wands, and took them through. Inside, the ceiling was like green glass through which the lake and its creatures were visible. Now dark, there wasn’t much to see as the lake’s water was so thick and black. The common room proper was a cold, cobblestoned hall dressed with dark green armchairs and silver tables and chairs. A few fireplaces were scattered against the walls, each of which burned with a green flame just like the Floo. Lavish carpets and tapestries filled the spaces furniture missed. The prefect dragged them quickly through to a steep straight staircase which lead down to their dorms.

“There’s always a bit of a gender difference in Slytherin,” the prefect said as he first showed the girls to their dorm. “So your rooms are a little smaller than the boys’ one, but since there’s so little of you this year, I’m sure there’s ample room.” The prefect pushed open the door to the girls’ dorm and Lily and her fellow students walked in. “You’re free to stay up or go to bed now. Don’t forget though – timetables will be handed out at 9am sharp tomorrow in the common room.” He then walked away to show the boys to their dorm, and Lily turned to her fellow Slytherins.

“I haven’t met any of you yet,” a girl with striking blonde hair said, and looked at the other girls. “I’m Alvena.”

“Sarah.”

“Rowena.”

“Lily,” she said finally, then turned to Rowena. “I’m surprised you didn’t get put in Ravenclaw, Rowena.”

“I guess it’s not about the name,” Rowena laughed in return, and the four girls spent a little time talking before retiring for bed.

Their year must have been a small batch, for the dorm, even as a smaller size still had two spare beds. Lily found her trunk by a bed next a glass lake window, and she sat on the bed to remove her shoes. The dorm itself was warmer than the common room, with one small green fire near the door. Another door led across to the bathroom where a number of showers and toilets were positioned in curves around the circular room. The dorm’s beds were large and comfortable, with thin wooden rails that held up silver curtains for each bed. On one side of the room, a short row of desks was spaced out with bookshelves between, already crammed full of old textbooks. Lily knew this was going to be a good dorm, and what seemed to be all friendly Slytherins was a pleasant welcome. After a shower, Lily slipped into her bed, pulled the curtains across, and fell into a deep sleep.

 

 


	9. First Day of Classes

Lily woke a little later than usual, but the sun had still yet to rise, judging by how the lake window was still pitch black. As Lily gazed out of it, she could have sworn she saw a large tentacle slide past the glass. By the time she had gotten dressed into her uniform, perused the bookshelves and sorted out her trunk, the sun was only just rising. Lily had gone up to the common room briefly, but there were no students up at the time. Suddenly finding herself rather bored, she reached into her side table drawer and pulled out the chocolate frog she had saved from the train. Standing by the window, she pulled open the box and squealed as the chocolate frog launched itself out and onto the glass.

“What is it!” Sarah yelled back, jumping out of her bed and getting tangled in her sheets.

“It’s just a chocolate frog!” Rowena laughed, getting out of bed. “Quick, catch it before it gets away!” She ran after the frog and Lily followed, sliding under the bed to try and get a hold of the animal. The frog came out the other side of the bed and Sarah threw her pillow at the creature. Lily then reached under the pillow and retrieved the frog, which stopped moving and turned into solid chocolate.

“It’s stopped moving?”

“Have you never had a chocolate frog before?” Rowena asked. “It stays alive until you touch it. Now you can eat it.”

“Are you _sure_?” Lily asked, observing how the frog had already begun to melt in her hands.

“That’s neat!” Sarah said, picking up her pillow. “You guys have so many weird lollies.”

“Are you a Muggle too?” Lily asked, suddenly realising Sarah’s ignorance in magical treats equalled her own.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Well what card did you get then? After all that excitement we might as well know,” Alvena finally perked up, having attempted to sleep through her roommates’ noise. Lily went back to her bed and picked up the card within the box.

“Oh, I’ve got Albus Dumbledore!” Lily exclaimed, moving the card back and forth. “Are you supposed to collect these?”

“You should see my collection!” Rowena said, pulling out a tin from her trunk. "He's pretty common." She opened the lid and poured out about fifty cards onto her bed.

“You really like chocolate frogs,” Lily said, breaking her frog into four pieces. She gave each girl a piece, and then washed her chocolate-covered hand. Together, Rowena and Lily sat sifting through chocolate frog cards until dawn had broken over the lake. Through the foggy glass, watery streaks of light illuminated the windows, shining bright into the girls' eyes.

 

 

“We should probably go up to the common room. You coming, Rowena?” Lily asked as Rowena was the only other girl dressed. “They’re going to hand out timetables soon anyway.”

Rowena nodded and the two girls went upstairs to the common room. There were only a few students up at the time, although breakfast started within the hour. As Lily and Rowena entered the common room, a white haired boy and two thick-looking cronies appeared from the second year staircase on the other side of the room. The white haired boy seemed to be berating the other two, and the group left the common room without so much as a look in the girls’ direction. Lily and Rowena sat down on a sofa by the fireplace, and within a few minutes of talking, another student emerged from the first year dorms. His face lit up with recognition when he spied the girls on the sofa, and he headed over.

“Hi Rowena,” he greeted, then turned to Lily. “I’m Jeremiah. I didn’t meet you at dinner last night, did I?”

“I don’t think so. I’m Lily,” Jeremiah held out his hand and Lily shook it.

“So, where are you girls from?” he asked casually, slipping down into an armchair. Rowena piped up immediately.

“I’m from near Creeksmouth. Had to go all the way down to London just to catch the train back here. Crazy, huh?”

“What about you, Lily?” Lily hesitated for a moment. The thought suddenly hit her – did she really want people knowing she was an orphan? She supposed the truth would come out eventually. What harm was there in the truth?

“Southampton,” Lily said, evading any more details.

“I’m from London myself. Nothing special there. I’m from a Muggle family actually. I suppose you’re both pure bloods like the rest of Slytherin seems to be.” Rowena replied again quickly with,

“Half and half actually; my mother is a witch from the Vittra family. They’re a very old Norwegian wizarding family. But my father’s a Muggle, so I guess I’m a bit of both.” Lily stayed quiet even though the other two suddenly looked at her expectantly. Lily started and shook her head.

“Sorry. Um actually, I’m an orphan. But I heard there was another orphan in this year too," she tried to throw them off her.

"Would you believe that's actually me?" Jeremiah laughed, and Lily stuttered.

"You're kidding!"

“That’s a coincidence!” Rowena said, and Jeremiah leaned forwards in his armchair.

“I didn’t know. It’s really nice to meet someone else who’s an orphan here. All I’ve been hearing is my mother was this, my father was that. No offense, Rowena.” The girl just laughed in response, and Jeremiah smiled back at her.

“So you’re probably Muggleborn too?” Jeremiah added.

“Yeah, I suppose.”

"Funny us both being in Slytherin, hey?" the boy noted.

“You guys must have magic somewhere in your lineages. You should ask the Sorting Hat.”

"Why the Sorting Hat?"

"Well remember how it said all that stuff about your family?" Lily baulked. She stayed silent, feeling the colour all drain from her face as Rowena stumbled on right through her cover on day one. "It said it had sorted distant relatives. It's got to know something about you!" Lily looked up and felt enormous relief, realising suddenly that Rowena had been speaking to Jeremiah the whole time.

“Maybe,” Lily added quietly, petering off the conversation as more students came up from the first years’ dorms. They seemed the most eager to start the new school year as little of the other students had even yet to rise. Lily spent the remainder of the hour meeting the rest of her class, and together they chatted until something swept through the common room door and stopped the older students mid-sentence. The first years swiftly stopped their own talking as the cloaked figure strode to the centre of the common room. Behind her, Lily heard Jeremiah whisper,

“That’s Professor Snape!” in a tone that suggested he had already heard tales of terror.

Snape stopped in front of a large silver table in the middle of the room. Students sitting at the table recoiled as the man whipped a large wad of parchment out of his cloak and separated the sheets within.

“Second years through seventh, collect here,” he spoke softly, but everyone in the room heard him. The parchments he tossed haphazardly on the table were loud in the silence. “ _Now._ ” Students scurried forwards to sift through the papers, and Snape moved away from the table towards the first years. Lily heard someone by her whisper a, ‘What’s up his arse?’, and noticed he did genuinely seem annoyed. The look in his eyes was menacing, and even Lily found it hard not to be terrified when he stopped suddenly and called out Jeremiah’s name.

“Come forwards. How am I supposed to commit your names to memory if I cannot _see_ you?” Jeremiah was visibly shaking, but he quickly made his way up to Snape and took his timetable.

“Alvena Bestiar. _Alvena Bestiar._ ”

“She’s still in bed, sir,” Sarah perked up courageously.

“Then go _wake her_ ,” Snape snarled, and Sarah squeaked as she ran off down the stairs.

“Joseph Hornsling.” The boy was up and down again hiding behind his fellow students in a flash.

“Lily Prince.” Lily dashed up quickly, quite genuinely as fearful as the rest of the students now were. Snape regarded her without any hint of emotion on his face, but when he handed Lily her timetable, Lily's fingers accidentally stroked the other long thin fingers that stretched underneath the paper, and Snape’s terrifying demeanour seemed to soften a little for her.

“Sarah Ott,” Snape called, seeing Sarah return with Alvena in tow. Sarah retrieved her timetable and Alvena stepped forwards, rubbing her eyes. Still in her pyjamas, the other students braced themselves for what was about to come.

“Miss Bestiar, the time is nine oh five. You were instructed to be prepared for timetable distribution at nine o’clock. Take this piece of rubbish and change immediately. Ten points from Slytherin,” Snape declared, and somewhere in the distance an angry grumble was heard from the older students.

“Let that be a lesson to all of you now. I will not hesitate to take points from my own house, _even_ if they happen to the first points of the year. Congratulations, Miss Bestiar. You have singlehandedly created Slytherin history; the first house with negative points on the very first day of class. Get going.”

Snape cast her away, and although Alvena seemed a tough character, even her own cool façade slipped after her chewing out from Snape. Lily’s skin raised itself in goosebumps. She didn’t like the Snape she saw before her. Would she ever really get used to _this_?

 

 

The group of first years made their way to breakfast together, walking in on a hall loud with raucous laughter. Whatever it was that had started the hall laughing seemed to have long gone by the time they sat down to eat. Gradually the mood within the Slytherin first years became more jovial, but things didn’t stay so for long once they returned to collect their books and saw that their first class of the day was potions, and a double too. They desperately hoped the rumours that Snape favoured the Slytherins were true.

“Hold on!” Lily turned around as Jeremiah came running up behind her, clumsily clutching at his books. “You girls look like you know where you’re going!” he panted, coming into step with her as Lily turned around to continue walking.

“I can’t believe you can read the map we’ve got,” Jeremiah marvelled. “Wait, _have_ you got it?”

“The map?” Lily replied.

“Yeah, how do you know where we’re going?” he asked, beginning to sound panicky again.

“I’ve got one.” Rowena declared as she struggled to read it. Lily made a point of pretending to glance at the map, then instructed them all to turn down a corridor. After her stay at Hogwarts a few weeks prior, she didn't need any maps to help her find her way around the dungeons.

“Here, you take it,” Rowena said, placing her map on Lily’s books. “I give up," she laughed as Lily pointed them down yet another corridor. 

“This is it,” Lily said as they came up to the large wooden door of the first year’s potions classroom. There was no sign of another student, and the floor beneath them seemed to be thick with dust.

“We’re the only footprints down here,” Jeremiah said, staring back through the dim light at their trail. “Are you sure this is right? Where’s the map?” he started trying to get at Lily’s books, but she pulled away quickly.

“It’s the first class of the semester. Of course no one’s been down here in a while. Besides, I bet the dungeons are always dusty.”

“I hope Professor Snape’s not in as foul of a mood he was in this morning,” Rowena said, glancing behind her back. The other two nodded in agreement.

 

 

Ten minutes later, a grand total of nine other students had found their way to the classroom, but it seemed that most of the others were still missing. All the Slytherins had managed to find their way, not having had to walk quite so far, but the Gryffindors were probably hopelessly lost, and stayed unaccounted for until a number of prefects arrived ushering a group of students. Just before 9:45, the lock on the classroom door audibly released and the door swung steadily open for the students to walk in. Lily, Rowena and Jeremiah, being first in line, chose their seats in the third row, right on the far side of the classroom, and began laying out their books. Everyone had only just settled in, and the idle chatter grown, when a huge figure in black came sweeping into the room, slamming the classroom door magically closed behind it.

“There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few...who possess the predisposition... I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death. But I can teach you nothing if you do not pay attention in class, and to your homework, or most importantly, treat this subject with the care and respect it deserves. Potion making is dangerous, as you will find out are most magical practises, but in this classroom you will be in charge of instruments and concoctions which are not to be handled without extreme caution. Am I understood?” Lily tried her best to seem fazed by her professor’s tirade, but couldn’t help looking around her. The classroom was silent, faces were white, and a little mousy boy in the front looked as if he had soiled himself. Lily managed to keep an impassive face.

“Take out your potions books,” Snape instructed, turning around and looking to the blackboard. “Page 12, a basic sleeping draught. It is very simple to prepare and successfully create, even on your first attempt, _if_ you follow the instructions precisely. I will stress this to all now; if you follow a potions recipe precisely, it will not fail you. Any failure in a potion is, without some extenuating exception, generally the wizard’s fault, not the potion’s. Now watch carefully. It will do you well to take notes as I show you each of the ingredients for today’s class. First according to introduction is lavender. This is the French variety which is standard for potions making unless otherwise specified in a recipe. A sprig is generally considered a…”

Snape’s explanation of the potions ingredients continued, and while he spoke, Lily took slow, diligent notes. Having not written down anything of what her father had thus taught her, she made the most of this time, and also appeared to be a normal student. It would take some getting used to, but Lily was confident she could act as if she were not related to Snape or close to Albus or Minerva. It was a simple enough task.

Finally, they reached the potions making part of the class, and Lily set about collecting and preparing her ingredients with care and precision. She tried to avoid watching what her friends were doing, as she knew she would only try and help them, which she knew she shouldn't. Snape was to come and inspect each student’s ingredients as they finished before they were allowed to start the actual potion, and Lily waited an inordinately long time for at least one other student to put their hand up before her, but eventually her inactivity caught someone’s attention.

“Miss. Prince, I do not appreciate time wasters in my class. If you have finished preparing your ingredients, you are to raise your hand.”

“Sorry Professor,” Lily replied, genuinely abashed. “I was helping Jeremiah,” she lied, and Jeremiah perked up a little from hunching over his Valerian sprigs, trying not to be caught in by the wrath of Snape. The professor only grunted and leaned over to check Lily’s work, and he made a longer show of checking it than was perhaps necessary. Satisfied (as he knew he would be), Snape straightened up and spoke softly,

“You may begin the potion. Fill your cauldron with the faucet on the far wall.” Lily nodded and rose from her seat, lifting her heavy pewter cauldron. She was glad Snape had thought to mention the wall faucet as she hadn’t considered another way to fill up her cauldron; up until now, every time she had made a potion, she had used Augamenti without a second thought. Perhaps this was going to take more getting used to than she thought.

 

 

After the majority of the class had started their potions in full, a bell tolled somewhere down the silent corridors of the dungeons, echoing loudly in the gloom. Before any unwitting student began to pack up their things, Snape’s voice boomed from behind his desk.

“Do not forget that this is a double class this morning. You have another hour to complete your potions. I suggest that any student who has not reached stage two by now, hurry up.”

Snape turned back to his work before him, and a few students in front of Lily turned into a sudden frenzy, evidently trying to catch up on their potions. By this time, Lily knew she was coming to the end of her potion. She had seen her father make this before, as had she a number of times in preparation for the new semester; however she had not followed Snape’s augmented recipe as usual, but rather followed the book precisely. This meant she was just about finished, and she knew there was little point in attempting to leave the potion in the cauldron for any longer lest she ruin it. Hesitantly, she reached for her empty glass bottle, hitherto pushed aside behind her discarded herbs and preparation scraps, and lifted a small ladle to the rim of the cauldron. With a quick stir, she scooped up a measure of her potion and filled the glass jar, stoppered it, and hid it next to her cauldron out of sight. Lily wondered how long she could get away with letting it sit there before Snape came along. She glanced around behind her and was shocked to see her father strolling casually towards her, but he did not stop as he kept his eyes on the middle distance, only pausing briefly to tap Lily’s desk near the potion and mutter,

“Label it,” walking off towards the front row. Lily breathed a sigh of relief and labelled her potion on the paper stuck to its side, then spent the remainder of her class fiddling with her things, assisting Jeremiah, and slowly clearing her desk in time with the other students.

 

 

Finally, after what had seemed an age even after Lily had finished her potion, the bell rang somewhere in the distance, and she could leave the class in time with the rest of the students.

“Do not forget to place your completed potions in the box on my desk, or you will be scrubbing cauldrons in the next class. And do not forget your homework. I will be checking it at the beginning of the next class, no excuses accepted.”

 

 

“Phew, I’m glad that’s over,” Jeremiah declared as the three made their way to lunch.

“I don’t think he was that bad,” Rowena said. “After all, no one got in trouble, and he didn’t yell at anyone. Maybe the stories about him are just nonsense.”

“He didn’t yell at anyone because we were all too terrified to do anything,” Lily added as they dropped their books off in Slytherin.

“Yeah, you were just about the worst off!” Rowena laughed.

“Yeah! And trying to drag me into it when you got in trouble! Shame on you, Lily.”

“Sorry, I was trying to make myself look better, I suppose,” Lily replied, a little abashed, but her friends didn’t continue, and the three carried on to lunch where they sat with the other Slytherins of their year.

 

 

Afterwards, they collected their books and headed off towards the Transfiguration classroom. Lily, once again, was in charge of the map, and this time she needed it a little more as it took her a while to remember just how to get to the wing in which transfiguration was held. Eventually they found the classroom and only just managed to slip past a tabby cat that slinked into the classroom behind them.

“Oh good, we’re not late,” Lily breathed as they all bundled into desks in the empty front row. The tabby cat they’d seen then appeared on top of the desk at the front of the class and began bathing its ears. The students began to chat louder and louder as their teacher seemed to be late, and it was only after a shamefully long time that Lily realised the cat on the desk was one she’d seen before.

“Oh!” Lily remarked a little loudly, locked in a staring match with the cat.

“What?” asked Jeremiah.

“Forgot something,” Lily lied, brushing away Jeremiah’s concern. Grinning a little, Lily watched as the cat sat still while some chalk began writing with itself on the blackboard.  
‘How unruly a class that does not silence itself in the presence of its professor,’ the chalk wrote, and the class fell into utter silence. Suddenly, the cat sprang forth from the desk and transfigured into Professor McGonagall. Lily added her own appropriate oohs and aahs to the class chorus, and even joined in when someone initiated a round of applause.

“Thank you class, settle down. That was a taste of where transfiguration as a discipline can lead you. Not necessarily a skill we teach here at Hogwarts, but an interesting introduction to transfiguration none the less. But less us begin.” McGonagall made a few introductory remarks and instructed the class to read from a small passage in their text before she handed out a box of live beetles.

“Does everyone have a beetle? Keep a steady eye on it; you won’t get another one, Mr. Abney. Now, first practise the pronunciation: carabus botonis.”

“Carabus botonis,” the class chanted in unison.

“Good. Now to perform the spell, simply aim your wand at the beetle and say ‘carabus botonis’,” McGonagall’s beetle promptly transformed into an ordinary black button, and she held it up for the class to see. “Once you’ve all mastered this, I will teach you how to return the beetle to its original state. First, practise. Do not be disheartened if it takes a few attempts. You may begin when ready.”

A few nervous ‘carabus botonis’s echoed around the room, and Lily picked up her wand and aimed it at her orange beetle.

“Carabus botonis,” she enunciated, but nothing happened. Downhearted, Lily attempted a few more times. “Carabus botonis, carabus botonis,” she even went so far as to give the beetle a prod with her wand.

“Why won’t you change?” she asked with exasperation as she saw Rowena’s green beetle transform into a button. Rowena turned away from Lily to watch another student attempt to transfigure their rhinoceros beetle, and Lily took the opportunity to switch her wand to her left hand. With her right hand, she waved at the beetle,

“Carabus botonis,” and the beetle popped into a button.

“Got it!” she said triumphantly, holding the button up to peer through, but the light shining through the button disappeared, and Lily looked around it to see McGonagall regarding Lily with a glare, but she moved away without a word. 

 

 

When it came to transfiguring the buttons back, the bell rang before most of the students had succeeded.

“Once you have successfully transfigured your button back into a beetle, place it in the box and you may leave for your next class.”

Soon, Rowena and Jeremiah were gone, and even the slower students from potions had managed to change their beetles back and left. Eventually, Lily was the only student left, and she looked up from her attempts to see McGonagall standing over her.

“I could do it,” Lily said defiantly, “if you’d let me just use my hand.”

“That’s not the point of this exercise, Lily,” McGonagall replied, sweeping down into a seat next to her. “I know _you_ can do this. I thought you’d have been first out the door when you came in, but that’s not what I’m worried about now.” Lily looked up at McGonagall. There was genuine worry in her faded blue eyes, the sight of which sent worry into Lily’s.

“Why can’t I use my wand?”

 

 

“What do you mean she can’t use her wand?!” Snape erupted. “She is a perfectly capable witch!”

“No one is doubting that, Severus. It’s the fact that her wand is unresponsive that worries us.” Dumbledore finally spoke up, tiring of the increasingly loud shouting match that was unfolding between Snape and McGonagall.

“Minerva and I are worried that she cannot channel her magic properly. You know that could lead to all sorts of problems, least of all jeopardising her chances of fitting in with the rest of the students. We need to check on her, to help her. Madam Pomfrey-”

“I do not need some nurse to diagnose my child!” Snape growled at Dumbledore. “I know why she cannot use her wand.” The other two were silent and Snape continued quickly,

“She has scars all over her hands from some dark magic; probably the same as the Boy’s.”

“Severus-”

“She might not ever be able to use a wand, but regardless she will need some serious healing before she can begin to see any improvement. I will see to it _myself_.” Snape left Dumbledore’s office before the other two could get another word in.

“Poor man,” Minerva said quietly, staring after Snape.

 

 

After a miserably boring introduction to Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Gilderoy Lockhart (apparently a celebrity, which was obvious by his inexhaustible ego), Lily wandered back to the Slytherin common room with her friends. It hadn’t been fun being late to that particular class, and Lily wanted desperately to forget about how Lockhart had made an example of her having not read his “text” books. 

“We’re going to go check out the Quiddich pitch. You coming?” Jeremiah asked excitedly. After having seen the moving pictures in a newspaper this morning, he had been talking about nothing other than the “rugby of the skies”.

“Sure,” Lily said, and threw her books into her dorm before heading back upstairs.

“Prince?” A Slytherin head boy walked up to Lily and her friends just as they were preparing to leave.

“Yeah?”

“Message from Professor Snape: he wants to see you in his office immediately. You’d better hurry too – it took me ages to find you. He’ll be furious by now.”

“Oh no… Good luck,” Rowena said, patting Lily on the shoulder. Lily practised a theatrical gulp and headed out of the common room with the head boy. He led her down the corridor, to the left, and down an eternally winding staircase until they reached Snape’s office. Lily had been here before, but the head boy did his duty to bring her down and announce her before scuttling back up the staircase as quickly as dignity allowed him.

“You wanted to see me, Professor?” Lily said as she heard the boy’s footsteps fading away.

“Close the door, Miss. Prince,” Snape commanded, and waved a hand towards the chair in front of his desk.

“McGonagall told me about Transfiguration today.” Lily gulped for real this time, and looked down at her hands.

“I couldn’t do it,” she whispered, her head hung in shame. “I could do it with my hands, she knew it too, but my wand-”

“It didn’t work. Dumbledore is worried about you; he’s afraid this inability to use a wand will reveal yourself too quickly within the school.” Snape paused, watching Lily’s downcast eyes. It struck a chord somewhere in him. “You shouldn’t be ashamed. I know why you can’t use your wand.”

Snape spoke slowly, moving around to stand in front of Lily. Gently, he lifted her hands from her lap with his own large hands. Turning them over, he traced her deep scars with his finger.

“My scars?” Lily asked, looking up at her father.

“Do you know what they’re from?”

“I’ve never known,” Lily replied.

“I suppose you've heard all about Potter by now?”

“That’s Harry? I’ve only heard what you’ve told me,” she replied.

“He has a scar like a lightning bolt on his forehead. That is where the Dark Lord attempted to kill him with the Killing Curse. His scar is the result of that powerful dark magic. I doubt it affects the boy, not more than is expected, but with you the scars are different; they're in the way.”

“You mean He tried to kill me too?” Snape knelt down in front of his daughter, cupping her hands in his own.

“No, Potter stopped him before he got to you; this is the residual dark magic that filled the room when the Dark Lord perished. These scars have changed your magic and the way you cast spells. They're blocking your wand.”

“Does anyone else know about these?” Lily asked quietly. She was shocked, terrified. Her scars had never been anything but scars, but now they were holding her back?

“I told Albus and Minerva,” he said, and gently pushed her chin up to look him in the eye. “These scars do not define you, Lily. They are hindering you, yes, but they will not defeat you. Without them you would probably not be able to do the magic you can do now with your hands, but they are blocking you from channelling that magic through your wand, which would make you an even more powerful witch than you already are. I don’t know how to help you yet, but I will find a way. You will be alright.”

A few silent tears fell down Lily’s cheeks, and Snape wiped them away with the cuff of his sleeve.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered, pulling her into a hug.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update spurred on by a bad day, but a memory that made me smile. Rest in peace Alan Rickman.


	10. Quiddich Problems

Snape spent the next week and a half almost entirely without sleep. Between his classes, he scoured the restricted section, furiously trying to find a clue to help his daughter’s condition. The darkest of the dark magic books barely shed any light on the scars she had sustained; no one had ever survived the Killing Curse before, so there was precious little to go on.

“How long has it been since you slept?” Lily asked Snape one evening, as she pulled out her potions homework to do on a side table by Snape’s desk.

“That doesn’t matter,” Snape replied, his head cradled in one hand, the other turning the enormous pages of an old tome. Beside him, Lily saw a few empty potions bottles and assumed they were some sort of pep potion, but she didn’t question him any further. For a while, Lily did her homework in silence, but her own thoughts were distracting her.

“What have you been looking for? In the books, I mean. Which topics?”

“Anything relating to the Killing Curse,” Snape replied, glancing briefly up at Lily.

“There’s not much about that,” Lily replied.

“How do you know? You haven’t been looking it up?” Lily nodded slightly, but otherwise didn’t reply. Snape sighed and heaved the cover of the huge spell book closed.

“I can’t find a thing. I’ve tried every book in the restricted section, studied every possible topic about death and magic channelling and blocking… I’m running out of ideas, and books.” Lily stuttered a little before speaking, and Snape stared at her as she tried to formulate her next sentence. Eventually she settled for,

“Don’t be angry, but-”

“Any sentence that starts like that _tends_ to get me angry,” Snape replied, but Lily pushed on.

“I was looking up You Know Who. I thought it would be best to know more about him rather than what he might have done to me. But no one was there, right? He even could have cast something else on us that we don’t know about.”

“Perhaps. What did you find?” Snape asked, interested. Lily had a point; it hadn’t even occurred to Snape that the Dark Lord might have cast something else on the children. It had seemed so obvious that it must have been the Killing Curse. After all, he had gone to _kill_ the boy, not just curse him.

“Well the book said that Tom Riddle put his soul into lots of different things, which split him up and made him weak. It suggested that the reason Harry survived was because he’d become too weak from splitting up his soul, and that something in Harry broke his soul even more, and maybe these scars are from You Know Who’s soul.” Snape listened and thought for a moment, but then shook his head.

“Perhaps you may be right, but I don’t know anything about that; it’s a dark magic that few have studied. There aren’t any books on that even in the restricted section. It’s probably best to look more into the possibility that you have simply been cursed. Potter doesn’t have this same problem you do.”

“Maybe- no,” Lily stopped herself and laughed. “I thought perhaps you could ask the Dark Arts professor about souls, but that man’s a joke!” Snape sniggered.

“I’m glad you can see that in him. Lockhart is a bumbling fool; couldn’t do an expelliarmus to save his neck.”

“They should have made you Dark Arts professor.”

“Why do you say that?” Snape perked up.

“All the Slytherins think you want the job,” Lily replied.

“They’re right,” Snape laughed hollowly.

 

 

Throughout the next few weeks, Snape managed to get no further in his studies. Lily had managed to bluff her way through her classes (since the first few months of term were predominantly theory), and whenever a spell was practised in class, Lily got away with the story that had been shared with the teachers and a few of her closest friends:

“My wand is really old and Ollivander’s had to take it in to see why it’s not working. He thinks it might have died.”

That kept her able to avoid any spell work for the next few weeks, but as classes progressed it was becoming more and more of a burden. Her talents therefore had to focus themselves into potion making, astrology, herbology, and flying.

 

 

It was the second flying lesson of the new term when Lily caught the attention of Madam Hooch. Their first lesson the week before had been simple, tedious broomstick control and Lily had sat hovering with half the class (mainly those from Wizarding families) waiting for her fellow half-bloods and Muggleborn students to come to grips with flying. The obvious dichotomy made for a slow first class, but now Madam Hooch had set up an agility obstacle course, the better flyers really began to shine.

“Alright class, as you can see, I have set up a number of hoops of different sizes throughout the pitch. The goal posts are part of this agility course. Your task is simple: fly through the hoops. Together we shall go through the course, and then I shall time you each individually as you attempt to complete the course as quickly as possible. This test of agility is often used in second year and above as one of the many tryout tests for our house Quiddich teams. Hufflepuffs, I will be looking at you especially today,” Madam Hooch winked, and the Hufflepuffs laughed melodically.

“Mount brooms, and let’s begin.”

Madam Hooch took the students through the hoop course in one big line, dodging in and out of hoops slowly so the class could follow. Once they’d all landed again, students began lining up, and Madam Hooch timed them as they whizzed around the course.

Lily went halfway through the group, pushing off from the ground on the blow of Madam Hooch’s whistle. She sprang from the ground with powerful legs and rocketed upwards towards the first hoop. The first few hoops were the largest, designed to get you used to the course, and as Lily swept through them, they became increasingly smaller, and the turns between them tighter, until Lily was hugging tight against her broom, wheeling from left to right as she passed the last few hoops. On the very last, which was positioned far away from the others at the other side of the Quiddich pitch, Lily sped forwards. Pressing herself flat against her broomstick, she soared forwards as fast as the old school broom could take her, the wind roaring past her ears blocking out the cheers from her classmates below. Squinting, Lily aimed for the last hoop, tiny in the growing distance, and scraped through it as Madam Hooch slammed her stopwatch with a loud whoop.

“Lily Prince, one minute and one second!” The class roared for her as she landed back down by the group, her hair messy and plastered against her face. “Undoubtedly a record! Abney, can you beat Prince? Ready? Go!”

Rowena and Jeremiah ran across the pitch to where Lily had landed a little away from the group.

“That was amazing!” Rowena declared as Blake Abney tottered through the hoops above their head. Jeremiah gave Lily a huge thump on the back in appreciation, knocking the wind out of her, and a few of the other Slytherins came up to her as they ignored the Gryffindor flying abysmally above them.

 

 

Eventually the news that Lily had broken a thirty-five year old agility trial record filtered up to Snape, and as head of Slytherin House, he was placed in the difficult position of choosing whether or not to allow Lily on the team.

“I think she’d be an invaluable addition to the team, sir. And with that Malfoy, we’re going to need all the _good_ new players we can get.”

“Malfoy has his talents, Flint. And his broomsticks. But he is trying out just like everyone else. I will not flout the rules as recklessly as Professor McGonagall did for Potter. She is a first year, and a girl. I fear your team would be protecting her more than playing the game in the end.”

“Don’t count on it,” Flint snorted, but quietened down with a glare from Snape. With an imperceptible sigh, Snape gave in.

“I will allow the first year to attend the tryouts, but if she fails to impress, she will not be chosen. That is all I will allow.”

 

 

Tryouts began that Saturday, and with great excitement Lily lined up with a number of older Slytherins at the Quiddich pitch on a cold Saturday morning. Some of the older students recognised her and congratulated her on her record, while others gave her a cold shoulder or even muttered behind her back. But Lily didn’t care. She was beginning to get used to the Slytherin way of life; it was much like the orphanage in a number of ways.

“Alright, today we will be going through basics with everyone who wants a go, and then those who we choose will be moving on to the next rounds. We have four places to fill this year, which means we’ve got a _lot_ of training to do to get this new team up to scratch. These tryouts will be tough. Alright, we’ll start with seekers. Those of you trying out, line up for the agility test. Prince!” Flint yelled across the throng of students picking up broomsticks from the school’s shed. “You’re up first. Let’s see if the Hogwarts record breaker was real or a fluke.”

“That was _you_?” a snivelling young boy appeared in front of Lily as she picked a broomstick from the pile.

“Yeah,” she said, glancing briefly at the slick black and green broomstick the boy cradled by his side.

“Watch out; they’ll be calling you the next Harry Potter soon. Two first years in two years. But I don’t know, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. First year players only crop up once in a blue moon.”

“But wankers, they’re for life, aye?” The Slytherins around her howled in laughter at the defeated face of Malfoy, patting Lily heartily on the back whilst Lily sauntered away before Malfoy could pull himself together for a reply. Even Flint was grinning when Lily went up to stand beside the captain.

“Maybe you will fit in. Good luck,” Flint said, in an uncharacteristic display of humanity. Anyone who could meet and disgrace Malfoy in one fell swoop was someone Flint could get along with. “Ready, and go!”

Lily pushed off from the ground once again and followed the same route she had raced one week ago. Her experience made the course a little easier, and with a much less enthusiastic roar from the crowd below her (except Rowena and Jeremiah who were roaring in the stands below her), Lily charged through the last hoop, this time managing not to graze her back. When she landed near Flint, he grinned through crooked teeth and showed the stopwatch to Lily.

“Fifty nine seconds. I guess it wasn’t a fluke.” Lily laughed loudly and waved up to her friends. She shouted out her time, and even though they couldn’t hear her, the look on Malfoy’s face was enough to tell them her time had been just as great.

 

 

The other tryouts ran smoothly, with Lily encouraged to try all the other positions out. She did well as keeper and chaser, but almost lost her arm when it came to beater. It was late afternoon before Lily was up against Malfoy and two others for the position of seeker.

“This test is simple; catch the snitch. We’re using our practise snitch, so this is what you can expect in a real match. It’s just about raining too, so that makes things a little harder. Now you know all the rules from our incident with Malwaters before: no blocking, blatching, blagging, blurting, cobbing… you get the idea. If it feels like cheating, don’t do it. When you’re actually on the team we’ll talk about cheating.”

The other Slytherin team player laughed beside Flint, and he reached down to release the catch on their Quiddich box. The lid snapped open and out flew a tarnished golden snitch. Lily watched, mesmerised, as the thing whizzed around her head before flying off into the sky.

“Well?” Flint said, staring the four down, “go!”

All four tryouts pushed off and soared into the air. Malfoy, on his Nimbus two thousand and one, seemed to have a hugely unfair advantage against the other three on tatty old school brooms. Lily tried to ignore Malfoy and the other two as she soared up and up into the sky. Somewhere below, she must have left the bounds of the Quiddich pitch. Far below, Flint wondered what the daft girl was doing.

“She does know how to play, right?”

Far above, Lily sat floating in the turbulent sky. The clouds were beginning to rumble and light up far in the distance. The storm was miles off, but it still probably wasn’t the safest place for a person to be in such weather. As Lily sat in the sky, she used the vantage point to scour the field for any sign of the snitch. Its dull sheen and the onset of a light rain meant there was little hope Lily would catch a glance of the thing reflecting any light, but she hoped her good eyes would detect the movement of the snitch against the violent green grass below. Lily watched as the other seekers flew around aimlessly, hoping for a glance of their prize. Malfoy seemed to be following the other two hoping they’d see it for him until the older girl had spotted Lily and was making her own way to a vantage point to try Lily’s trick. Just then, Lily spotted some movement near the bones of the naked Quiddich stands. Without their flags and colours on, there was just bare wood, and inside this wood, Lily thought she caught sight of the snitch darting in and out. As quickly and sneakily as she could, Lily tipped the nose of her broomstick down and, rather than fly, let herself fall in a dive down to the stands. She was more than halfway down before Malfoy caught onto her trail and headed towards the stands, but by then Lily had seen the snitch zip out of the woodwork and fly up towards her. She pulled up sharply to slow her descent, watching as the other girl zipped past her to the stands below. It seemed that everyone had locked in on where Lily was going. Flying up again, Lily repositioned herself upright to glance around and saw the snitch was now not far from her on the opposite side of the pitch. Leaning forwards, she raced across, and banked to the left with the movement of the snitch as she reached her hand out to grab it. Rain dripped from her outstretched fingers and ran into her eyes as she raced through the now heavy rain, right towards the snitch. With one last dive to follow it, Lily accidentally managed a barrel roll, but caught the snitch firmly in her left palm as she clung desperately to her swaying broomstick. Below, Flint blew his whistle, and all four tryouts flew back down to the ground, absolutely sodden.

“Well, looks like a fancy new broom doesn’t get you anywhere without skill,” Flint mocked at Malfoy, who stormed off in a rage.

“Congratulations, Lily Prince, first year seeker for Slytherin,” Flint shook her hand, as did the others, and they packed it in before the storm got any stronger.

 

 

“Take her out and put Malfoy in,” Snape commanded, throwing the team list back at Flint.

“He was rubbish, Professor,” Flint protested. He knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Snape, but Flint had more balls than most to mess with their terrifying head of house.

“I don’t care. Malfoy’s got those brooms, for one thing, and I don’t want a tiny little girl on the team. The other houses would see her as a weak point and I’d have to be writing home to parents about their brutalised little girl in less than a week after games begin. I won’t allow it.”

“Fifty nine seconds, sir! _And_ she caught the snitch, tricked everyone in to following a false trail. She’s the best Slytherin seeker I’ve seen in years.”

“Enough, Flint! I made more than a concession in letting you have the girl attend tryouts. Take her off the team, or I’ll get Bletchley to take her off the team for you. Do you understand, Mr. Flint?” Snape leaned across the table, and Flint left with a frustrated

“Yes, sir”.

 

 

The next day, Quiddich team lists were put up in the Great Hall. Lily rushed excitedly over to see the news, but was crestfallen when Malfoy’s name appeared under Seeker on the list.

“Guess you’re not that good after all, Prince,” a puffed-up Malfoy declared, flanked by his dunderhead cronies.

“Guess the promise of a couple of new broomsticks were more important to Flint than a good player. Shame; one good player on a dud beats seven morons on new broomsticks.” Draco’s cronies advanced threateningly, and Lily gripped her wand. Just then, a voice called out from behind Lily.

“Leave her alone Malfoy.” Lily turned around to see a young boy with brown hair and glasses come to her aid.

“What’s it to you, Potter? You’ll be losing to us Slytherins in a few weeks anyway. Don’t bother standing up for us.”

“That’s enough Malfoy. You couldn’t even beat the agility test in under a minute and a half, and you missed hoops. All the Quiddich teams know. They’re laughing at you, and Marcus Flint. You might’ve stood a chance if you’d put Lily on your team.”  


“Well you might as well put her on Gryffindor’s team then, Potter!” Draco declared, and with a quick grab at his pocket he pulled out his wand, bellowing “stupefy!” at Harry, but Lily was quicker. Without saying a word, she whipped her own wand up and cast a non-verbal protego in front of herself and Harry. Behind her, another girl began calling out “petrifi-”

“Potter, Malfoy, Granger! All of you put your wands down.” Thankfully, the voice that called them out was not that of a teacher, but the prefect Lily had met on the train some weeks ago, Percy Weasley.

“Twenty points from each of your houses, and no more of this nonsense. You know better than this, Granger. Get to class now before I get a teacher involved.” The group of students dispersed quickly, with Draco and his group leaving to head to the dungeons. Instead of following them, Lily turned around to those who had come to her aid.

“Thanks,” she said, holding out her hand first to the girl who had almost spelled Draco, and then the boy.

“No problem. I didn’t think Malfoy was such a horrible person to his fellow Slytherins too, but apparently so,” the boy said. “I’m Harry Potter, by the way.”

Lily’s eyes went a little wider for a second. She had just met her half-brother for the first time. With a little effort, and masking behind the thrill of greeting a “celebrity”, Lily managed to hide most of her surprise.

“Hermione Granger, and this is Ron.”

“Weasley,” he said, shaking Lily’s hand as well.

“Oh, you’re Ginny’s brother! I met her at the start of term, but she doesn’t really like hanging around the Slytherins.” Ron muttered an “I wonder why” and got his ribs full of Hermione’s elbow.

“I’m Lily Prince,” she said, beginning to walk out of the Great Hall with the new group. They had only walked a short way together, chatting merrily, when they crossed paths with Snape. The other three seemed to visibly cringe, and they stop talking as soon as they saw the man sweeping down the hallway. All five of them stopped in a kind of standoff, and Snape looked towards Lily. After a moment regarding them, he spoke.

“My condolences on not making the Quiddich team this year, Miss. Prince. I’m sure you would have been a valuable player.” With that, Snape walked off, and the other four continued on.

“That was the most emotion I’ve ever seen Snape display,” Ron joked once they were around the corner.

“Who knew he was capable of condolences!” Hermione laughed, and Lily found herself struggling to laugh along with them. The crushing news that she had not made the team was still fresh. Harry tried to console her.

“There’s always next year, maybe sooner. I bet Malfoy won’t last. All his skill is in his broomstick. We should play some time, a friendly match, and you can try out my Nimbus Two Thousand. The school ones are so horrible and dodgy.” Lily set a date to play against Harry and his friends, but before she was about to leave, Marcus Flint appeared from around a corner, clearly in search of Lily.

“Bad move, Flint. Without Lily on your team, we’ll clobber Slytherin this year. Even you have to admit I’d thrash Malfoy,” Harry gloated as Flint sauntered up to the group.

“No so fast there, Potter. Malfoy’s not bad, and certainly better than you. Lily, I wanted to apologise. Bletchley and I wanted you on the team really badly, but Professor Snape wouldn’t have it. He wanted Malfoy for the new brooms. I tried to convince him otherwise, but you know,” Flint shrugged, indicating the futility of arguing with a man like Snape.

“You know next year, you’ll be on the team, no tryouts, no Snape saying otherwise. I couldn’t appeal to the headmaster because you’re a first year, but next year...” Flint held out his hand to shake, and Lily took it in a firm shake.

“Thanks, Flint.”

“Call me Marcus,” he said warmly, and clapped her lightly on the back. “See you around.”

“We’ll have to watch out for you next year,” Hermione said, smiling at Lily. Lily, however, was suddenly bent on another track.

“I’d better get going, guys. Lovely to meet you all. I’ll see you on the weekend.”

“Goodbye Lily.”

“Bye,” the others said in unison.

Lily tore back down through the corridors past the Great Hall in search of Snape. She looked in to the staff table but didn’t see him, so followed on down the steps through a shortcut to the dungeons. Once she reached the door to Snape’s office, she tried bursting through but was blocked by a ward. She tried alohamora, a charm she had learnt in class the other day, but it failed, so she sat herself down heavily against the cold stone steps, waiting for Snape’s return.

 

 

The quiet rhythmic steps of someone coming down the stairs brought Lily out of her daydream of soaring across a busy Quiddich pitch. Snape’s footsteps echoed louder and louder until he appeared at the bottom of the stairs, no surprise showing on his face as he encountered his daughter waiting for him, fists clenched.

“What does Flint mean? _You_ made him kick me from the team! Why would you do that?” Snape pushed past Lily and opened his office door with a wave of his wand.

“Because I don’t want you getting hurt,” he said as Lily followed him inside his office, closing the door with entirely too much force. “You’re drawing far too much attention to yourself as it is, and now you’re off hanging around with Potter and his miscreant friends-”

“That’s no reason! I could get hurt anywhere! Didn’t you hear about my record? I’m the fastest in the school – even _Potter_ can’t beat me, and he’s got a Nimbus! You don’t care about Slytherin, or me-”

“I CARE A DAMNED SIGHT MORE THAN YOU THINK I DO!” Snape bellowed, spinning around to face his daughter. Lily could have sworn the specimen jars in his office shook. “You’re a target out there, a weak little girl on a broomstick, you can’t even cast a spell-”

“Can’t I?” Lily screamed, pulling out her wand. “ _Lumos solem!_ ” Lily cast, and what should have been a narrow beam of light filled the room, blinding Snape and Lily, causing her to drop her wand to shield her eyes. Once their eyes readjusted to the murky dungeon light, Lily noticed a thing in one of the larger jars bubbling and squealing with pressure. Snape ignored whatever Lily had awoken, instead moving forwards slowly, anger screwed into his face. His expression terrified Lily, and she couldn’t help but back up as he approached her. Instead of yelling again, Snape simply made a snatch at Lily’s right hand. He yanked her arm up roughly and examined her scars, which had turned bright red. Rather than ask, Snape simply prodded Lily’s scar, and with a hiss she pulled her hand back, nursing it.

“It’s not sunburn from the spell; it hurt before when I cast protego.” Snape barely looked at his daughter as he moved back around to his desk, muttering something about having given her more than enough leeway in letting her try out for the team, but Lily didn’t stay to listen. She took those precious few seconds to grab her wand from the ground and make towards the door. Snape saw her moving and cast a locking spell, so when she tried to pull it open, she was stuck. He was about to begin speaking when Lily simply waved her hand at the lock and opened it with a nonverbal alohamora. Wrenching the door open, she sped off up the stairs before Snape could call after her.

“Where in Hell is she learning these spells?” he cursed out loud to the fizzing pot on his shelf. The pot burst its lid in response.


End file.
